Abstract
Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted food supply chains and threatened food security. Singapore is highly dependent on food imports and has an open economy that exposes it to volatile global markets, so it is acutely vulnerable to the effects of the pandemic on other countries, the effectiveness of measures taken by foreign governments to combat the spread of the virus and overall disruptions of international trade links. Proactive and reactive steps have been taken to protect Singapore's food supply chains against the adverse impacts of COVID-19. In this paper, we discuss food security in the city state, the impacts of COVID-19 in the population, the local production, and imports from two main trade partners: Malaysia and China. We conclude by acknowledging the complexity of achieving food security under the very difficult circumstances.
Highlights
The COVID-19 virus, as named by the World Health Organization on 11 February 2020, spread rapidly across the world with serious social and economic consequences
We present the food security strategies Singapore has developed over the years, followed by an account of the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had in the city state during the February to July period in 2020, as well as the policies and decisions that were taken to mitigate impacts on food supply chains
We examined Hansard (Official Reports on Parliamentary Debates) published by the Singapore Parliament, to understand the political attention accorded to the impacts of COVID-19 as the situation was evolving, and the associated policy responses
Summary
The COVID-19 virus, as named by the World Health Organization on 11 February 2020, spread rapidly across the world with serious social and economic consequences. The city state has developed a wholeof-government approach in crisis management, whereby an inter-agency coordination platform is established across the Singapore Public Service to address security threats and regular cross-agency coordination. In this task force, senior representatives from all ministries work together and report to the elected leadership for political direction (Low, 2016). We present the food security strategies Singapore has developed over the years, followed by an account of the impacts the COVID-19 pandemic had in the city state during the February to July period in 2020, as well as the policies and decisions that were taken to mitigate impacts on food supply chains. We conclude by acknowledging that the policies of the city state to improve food security have been effective but that the ongoing pandemic requires their continuous review because of reliance on external sources of food
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