China’s ‘new proteins’ bet: A win for Singapore

Their mission was to identify the most pressing challenges in achieving taste and cost parity between conventional and alternative proteins.

Just a few months later, Beijing opened its first government-funded innovation centre focused exclusively on alternative proteins.

The walls of that new centre are emblazoned with quotes from President Xi Jinping, who has directed his countrymen to “give rise to new industries, new models and new drivers of growth” through technological innovation.

Alongside those quotes is a timeline of industry milestones, which includes December 2020 – a defining moment when Singapore became the first country to approve the sale of cultivated meat.

In 2025, Singapore also established a new UN working group with South Korea and Saudi Arabia, aimed at streamlining international safety review processes for cultivated meat.

Industry leaders in China suggest that the country could introduce its own regulatory framework as early as late 2026, potentially unlocking an enormous market opportunity.

Economics is one driving force behind China’s growing interest in “new proteins”.

Researchers in Singapore have warned that unless Asia diversifies its protein supply, the region cannot meet its carbon emissions goals.

Recognising this, China has responded by investing hundreds of millions of dollars in “biomanufacturing” through its State Development & Investment Corp to become a sustainable protein supplier to the world.

Geopolitical incentives are also at play.

As incomes and meat consumption have increased, the country has had to import hundreds of millions of tonnes of soya beans and corn for animal feed.

This is due in large part to the extreme inefficiency of cycling food through farmed animals.

As noted in Bruce Friedrich’s new book Meat: How The Next Agricultural Revolution Will Transform Humanity’s Favorite Food – And Our Future, even chicken – regarded as the most efficient animal protein to produce – requires nine calories of feed to yield just one calorie of meat.

That is like serving nine bowls of rice and discarding eight. 

China’s leaders are understandably eager to reduce this import dependence and free up vast quantities of raw materials for human food production.

By mastering the art of making protein from plants, micro-organisms and cultivated animal cells, China can make far more of it and bolster self-sufficiency.

That vision will take centre stage later this week during China’s annual Two Sessions summit in Beijing, where the country will approve its latest five-year plan.

In the weeks leading up to the conference, provincial leaders have been rolling out their own ambitious plans in support of the national strategy.

Shanghai, for instance, announced a new 20-point action plan to accelerate novel food development over the next five years through synthetic biology, artificial intelligence, and science-driven communication strategies.

This sudden surge of domestic and international collaboration by Asia’s largest economy is great news for Singapore – and it comes just in time.

Singapore has invested up to 24 times as much public funding in protein innovation as other global innovation hubs like the US (measured as a percentage of its gross domestic product), but has faced a sector-wide slowdown in this sector over the past year,

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China’s major investments could renew widespread interest in this field.

As an epicentre in climate financing, Singapore is also well-positioned to help this emerging industry thrive by bringing together key public-sector stakeholders, private investors, and philanthropic players.

“In something like the alternative protein sector… the solutions are there,” Singapore’s National Climate Change Secretariat director Joel Tee told audiences at the COP30 Singapore Pavilion in Brazil in November 2025.

“Unlocking that financing stack, that capital stack, is the big innovation that we should be looking at.”

Singapore’s long-term initiatives to build local expertise in protein innovation also appear to be paying off.

The number of university and polytechnic modules dedicated to alternative proteins has risen from just two in 2022 to six today, which would help build a world-class foodtech workforce in Asia. 

“China and Singapore are different in almost every way, and yet we share a common mission when it comes to food: make more with less,” said Professor William Chen, director of the Singapore Agri-Food Innovation Lab.

“As our planet warms, every country will need more efficient ways to make meat, and Asian innovation hubs are once again positioning themselves to sell the world what it needs.”