SINGAPORE – The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said on Wednesday (June 2) that the Republic’s overall meat supply has been stable so far despite the disruptions in the United States.
Brazilian food giant JBS suffered a cyber attack on Sunday, forcing it to shut down all of its beef plants in the US – accounting for almost a quarter of American supplies – and slow pork and poultry production. Slaughtering operations across Australia were halted and at least one Canadian plant was idled.
In response to a query from The Straits Times, the SFA said that should there be a disruption to food supply from any country, “we will work with our importers to tap on alternative sources and ensure that our food supply remains stable”.
Data from the agency showed that the US is one of the top three sources of fresh and frozen beef and chicken for Singapore last year – 9 per cent of imported beef here and 12 per cent for chicken.
Singapore also imported some pork from the US in 2019, according to a past report.
The other main sources of beef last year for Singapore were Brazil (55 per cent) and Australia (27 per cent). The rest was split among 11 countries, including New Zealand and Japan.
Singapore’s other main sources for chicken were Brazil (49 per cent) and Malaysia (33 per cent), with the rest from 12 countries including Argentina and Thailand.
As for pork, the main countries from which Singapore imported the meat were Brazil (38 per cent), Indonesia (19 per cent) and Australia (9 per cent). The rest was from 18 countries such as the Netherlands and Spain.