Hansard Explorer

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin asked the Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (a) whether the Ministry has assessed the impact of prolonged haze, compounded by prevailing weather conditions, on crop growth and agricultural productivity (i) locally and (ii) in Singapore’s food import sources; and (b) whether there are anticipated risks to Singapore’s food supply resilience and affordability.

The Minister for Sustainability and the Environment (Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien): Mr Speaker, may I address Question No 53 and written Question No 39 on today’s Order Paper?

Mr Speaker: Please go ahead.

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: The response to these questions also addresses a related Parliamentary Question filed by Mr Fadli Fawzi for a Sitting on 4 November 2026.

Members have asked about the impact of the haze on our food supply and our hawkers. I will address them in turn.

First, on food supply. This year’s haze has not affected Singapore's food supply. Singapore imports food from more than 180 countries and regions. Sourcing broadly helps to reduce concentration risks and enables industry to switch to alternative sources when needed.

We have heard feedback from wholesalers that prolonged haze may impact vegetable growth. For local farms, the feedback is that the overall impact has generally been minimal with operations returning to normal following recent improvements in air quality. The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) will continue to monitor the impact on food supply and implement measures to address concerns as necessary.

Turning to our hawkers, the haze has had some impact on footfall at our hawker centres and markets. The National Environment Agency (NEA) has been assessing the situation at centres managed by NEA or NEA-appointed operators. While hawker centres have generally experienced some drop in footfall, the extent varies across centres. At the same time, a reduction in footfall is often compensated by increase in takeaway orders. We will continue to monitor the impact on our hawkers as the situation evolves.

Hawkers have been receiving support to help with current cost pressures. As previously announced, the Government is providing support to eligible stallholders over a six-month period, from September 2026 to February 2027, to mitigate the impact of cost increases arising from the Middle East situation. All eligible stallholders are receiving $200 per month for cooked food stalls and $100 per month for market slab or lock-up stalls, which can be used to offset their monthly rent.

Taking these factors into account, there are no plans at this juncture to introduce additional haze-specific financial assistance for hawkers. While the haze situation has improved with the onset of the north-east monsoon, we are prepared to take appropriate measures should circumstances change.

Mr Speaker: Ms Nadia Samdin.

Ms Nadia Ahmad Samdin (Ang Mo Kio): Thank you, Speaker. I would like to thank the Minister for her response. Indeed, Singapore has made many efforts in terms of diversification, and I am glad to hear that our food supply was not impacted. I have two supplementary questions.

Firstly, in terms of monitoring and perhaps the dashboard, how does the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment assess compound risks, especially when an event such as the haze affects multiple countries from which we do import within the region, and whether there are any efforts to strengthen regional data sharing for early warning signs?

Secondly, I note that local farms did not have a significant impact, but at the same time, reduced sunlight and extreme weather conditions may collectively impact the productivity of our farms. Can I also understand whether there are any adaptation measures or support measures to help these farms remain resilient?

Ms Grace Fu Hai Yien: The Member has brought up a very important point, Mr Speaker, and that is the resilience of our food supply. That is the reason why in our Singapore Food Story, our local production needs to look at climate-resilient ways of producing their food. This time round, it is the haze. But very often, the haze also coincides with very dry weather conditions. You could say that climate change will impact all food production everywhere across the world. It could be the haze in Southeast Asia at this point in time, it could be rice production, it could be wheat, it could be other produce at other times.

So, it is important for us to have comprehensive measures to manage our food supply. Specifically for local produce, we really want to work with our farmers to have climate-resilient ways of producing. In other words, whether there is rain or not, we will have water supply for the plants. Whether it is sunny or not, we will have light energy for the plants.

That points us to more application of technology in the production. This is the direction, the north star, that we are aiming for our local farmers. We will help them to get there and along the way, identify risks and areas where business continuity needs to be implemented so that they can provide us with climate-resilient production across all seasons.

Similarly, with our food that is imported, we do bring in the data from all our sources, laying on top of it geographical and climate forecasts so that we can hopefully identify some of the risks and work on them, either through diversification or working with our producers and our exporters to harden their supply chain management.

An early warning system is something that we would like to do. In fact, we just convened the Meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) Ministers on Agriculture and Forestry. Food resiliency is one very important topic. We have engaged at the meeting very extensively. All the member states acknowledged that climatic changes and food resilience have to go hand in hand. We have a study now to try to project climate change into 2045 and understand its impact on regional production of major food commodities.

That is early warning. We are also working with others – the private sector, technology providers, financiers that are prepared to fund some of these adoptions of technology, as well as partners, dialogue partners, China, Japan and the Republic of Korea – to bring together technology that can help all ASEAN member states. It is going to be an important piece of work. Definitely, it is going to require a lot of effort all round, beyond Singapore. But where we can, Singapore will play the convening role, particularly during our chairmanship year, to see that we put that focus, the attention, the planning on long-term resilience of food production in the region.