Food security: Small states feeding the world

Two small nations in Europe and Asia have embraced technologies that pave the way for a more secure global food system: the Netherlands and Singapore.

The Netherlands has devoted half of its land surface to grow vegetables and to produce meat and dairy products. It is now the second-biggest exporter of food to the world, after the United States.

That position could change as the country prioritises reducing emissions and encouraging biodiversity over food exports, with plans for compulsory purchase of up to 3,000 high-emitting farms located near nature reserves. The action has prompted protests from Dutch farmers.

The Dutch have harnessed technology built around greenhouses, which has been bolstered in recent times with new generations of genetics and innovation. Adam Anders, managing director of Anterra Capital, a venture-capital fund manager specialising in agriculture and food technologies, says technology is integral to the Dutch DNA. 

Since the Golden Age, he says, the Dutch have embraced technology. The Netherlands is, in fact, credited with a string of firsts, including creation of the world’s first listed share market. In agriculture, it dominated the last green revolution, Anders says. 

Today, the Netherlands leads in five pillars of agriculture: piggeries, dairy, vegetable seeds, greenhouse and flowers. Anders says: “They own the global flower market; 70% of global flowers pass through the Netherlands.”

Another key area of the Dutch agrifood sector is food handling. Bor Boer, principal at Convent Capital, says: “90% of fruit imports into Western Europe come through Dutch ports, where the food is treated. Maturation is done by technology.”

Greenhouse technology has transformed the cultivation of crops in the Netherlands. A Dutch high-tech greenhouse produces around 80kg of tomatoes per sqm with four times less water than conventional farming in Spain, for example.

Other vegetables are grown indoors in vertical farms in a controlled environment to supply most of Western Europe. Dutch farmers employ technologies ranging from GPS systems to automation tools. Data is gathered, for instance, from soil sensors, resulting in improved yields.

Boer says: “We are relatively blessed, because the Netherlands is a small place. Plots are not too big, but big enough that farmers can use technology effectively. The land is flat, making it suitable for automation.”

Dutch farmers now look to a future where big data, robotics and artificial intelligence will be widely adopted to further optimise yield and quality. But even the best technologies can run into problems. Reliance on energy to power the greenhouses is worrying at a time of shortages.

Boer says: “Because of the Ukraine war, farmers are going through a difficult patch. It may not be possible for some to continue to produce vegetables in greenhouses. At this moment, quite a few have actually stopped producing. It will be interesting to see what happens this winter.

“Most of us suspect production will drop because it is more profitable not to produce anything – and if they have been able to acquire energy at a cheap price, they will sell that energy to others. However, this is a short-term thing.”

Unlike the Netherlands, which sees agriculture as a key economic activity earning around €100bn in export receipts, Singapore does not have land for traditional agriculture – nor the aspiration to become a food exporter. But as a country that imports 90% of its food and some drinking water, self-sufficiency is a national imperative. 

Singapore’s goal is to grow 30% of its food consumption by 2030. That task falls to the government-run Singapore Food Agency (SFA), which drives policies and on-the-ground research and production, while the S$403bn (€284bn) sovereign wealth fund Temasek scouts the world for innovations in food and agribusiness. The island state is producing greens in vertical urban farms alongside traditional farms, and breeding fish in aquaculture farms in waters surrounding the island.

Together with more than 20 land-based farms, Singapore’s aquaculture industry of 110 fish farms in the Straits of Johor and Singapore’s southern waters produced almost 4,700 tonnes, or 10%, of the country’s consumption of fish last year, along with 730 tonnes of other seafood, such as molluscs and crustaceans. SFA says its farms also cultivated vegetables totalling 12,684 tonnes (14% of national consumption) and 528 million eggs (26%).

In November 2022, SFA and INVE Aquaculture, an aquaculture biotechnology company based in the UK, agreed to set up in Singapore what will be known as the SFA-INVE hatchery technology centre. It brings together leading Singaporean and INVE hatchery experts to develop solutions and technologies for a tropical marine hatchery. Scientists will develop advanced hatchery technologies compatible with growing tropical fish, like Asian seabass and red snapper.

Temasek first invested in food and agriculture tech in 2015 and has since ploughed more than US$8bn into the sector worldwide. It holds more than 30 agri-food companies in its portfolio.  

As well as contributing to food security, Temasek is tasked with finding sustainable solutions under its ESG investment agenda. It has invested in lab-grown food through Impossible Foods, and an alternative milk product, Perfect Day. Late in 2021, Temasek launched its Asia Sustainable Foods platform to speed commercialisation of sustainable food, and to educate consumers.

In recent deals, Temasek has taken a leading role in the U$68m series-B funding round for US bioscience firm Brightseed. And a US$70m series-C round to develop a technology that will reduce food waste for Hazel Technology, also in the US.

Temasek’s path has also crossed with those of celebrities Leonardo DiCaprio, Robert Downey Jnr and Bezos Expeditions (part of Jeff Bezo’s Amazon empire). In February 2022, they all came together to back a San Francisco company, Wildtype, in a US$$100m series-B fund raising. Wildtype, which is working on producing sashimi-grade salmon, described that round as “the largest to date in the cultivated seafood space”.

Alex Frederick, a senior analyst at Pitchbook, says Singapore and the Netherlands are perfect examples of nations with limited resources turning to technology to achieve both food security and food sovereignty.