Refreshed guide for local food manufacturing firms to measure progress towards sustainability goals

The playbook, which provides companies with milestones they can hit, focuses on three key areas – the first of which is to help companies access markets more easily and build their credibility.

This comes amid a trade environment where sustainability-related export requirements, such as emissions reporting and indicating the percentage of packaging made from recyclable and renewable materials, are key in certain markets like the US and Europe.

The second focus area offers businesses practical suggestions to reduce energy, water and material costs.

Lastly, the playbook focuses on helping companies explore the circular economy, where they can recycle or upcycle by-products of the food manufacturing process, such as offcuts.

For example, local noodle manufacturer Tan Seng Kee Foods used to discard hundreds of kilograms of raw dough trimmings that were left over from stamping dumpling skins.

The company now upcycles the trimmings into furikake (dried condiments sprinkled on rice) called Krunch-Up! that comes in local flavours such as mee soto, salted egg and chicken rice.

Mr Raymond Tan, who is managing director of Tan Seng Kee Foods and president of the Singapore Food Manufacturers’ Association, added that with water and energy input an important part of business operations, and high fuel costs currently, resource optimisation solutions provided in the playbook could help reduce operating costs.

Cost concerns have made sustainability efforts an added challenge for homegrown brand SMH Food, which manufactures halal and non-halal frozen and chilled dim sum for local and overseas consumers. Its largest export market is the Middle East.

Shipments to the Middle East have stopped completely for now and the price of raw materials have gone up, said SMH’s director of strategic planning Johnson Tay. Locally, climbing diesel prices also have meant the firm had to streamline its delivery operations by cutting down on ad-hoc deliveries, like last-minute orders.

“Sustainability comes with a price – such as packaging materials, of which prices have gone up – but is the consumer willing to pay more for it?”said SMH’s director of business development Evan Tay.

“Instead of increasing the price, we have been trying to absorb the loss, but it has gotten to the point where it’s very difficult not to,” said Mr Tay.

As at 2023, Singapore’s food manufacturing sector comprised of over 1,500 food manufacturing companies employing over 60,000 workers. Sales in the sector reached $11.2 billion, with 65 per cent of exports going to international markets including Australia, Japan, Philippines, Thailand, and the United States.