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Comment by foota | Hacker News Reader

Singapore is a rich nation with tiny amounts of land, so it might make sense there even if not other places.

Huh... I figured that china would account for most of their food imports, but that's not actually the case.

https://wits.worldbank.org/CountryProfile/en/Country/SGP/Yea...

Surprisingly France and the UK are high up there, despite being geographically distant industrialized countries (e.g., not primarily based on agriculture). I wonder if this is because this is showing dollar value imports and these places export high cost food products? ... is it just champagne from France?

Edit: oh my god it is champagne (or more generally spirits: https://tradingeconomics.com/singapore/imports/france)

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Two points to consider, one against and one for.

1) It's a small island, but it's also a major trading port. Which means its whole economy is already geared towards importing food from neighboring countries.

2) On the other hand: no domestic industry to disrupt! No domestic farming groups lobbying against meat substitutes, which may push research/distribution furhter along.

Singapore has the most expensive meat in Asia ( https://www.picodi.com/sg/bargain-hunting/meat-prices-2023 ) and I guess depends mostly on Malaysia for fresh meat.

They're also big on future-proofing and environmental awareness in general as they have a very long term stable government that looks 10-100 years ahead.

May you share some more knowledge or source regarding their environmental awareness ? Thanks

At what point does the high-effort labmeat become more economical for Singapore than importing meat? I suspect this is the nontrivial bit of the equation, massive quantities of imports are already inbound every single day.

There may be some aspect of geopolitical independence here as well, if they're dependent on imports for luxury foods (like meat) then they're more exposed to higher prices and external supply issues (which might be health related, scarcity, or some kind of politically caused scarcity).

I must respectfully disagree. Geopolitical independence is fundamentally less of a concern for luxury goods. You not being able to get a fancy steak is not a national security threat.

Meat is actually a "superfood" that gives you both energy and the building blocks your body needs to keep working. We don't need it in developped countries but in times of trouble when importations might be impossible, meat is not going to be a luxury.

Sure, but it's not going to make people happy. (tongue in cheek) Unhappy people can be a national security threat.

Isn’t part of the point that they are importing their staples and luxury, rice as well as steak?

Not in times of scarcity (with a recent example being the pandemic).

> high-effort labmeat become more economical for Singapore than importing meat?

When you would be able to import the labmeat ingredients for at least 8x times the result weight of the imported meat.

Where S. would get these ingredients domestically?

In the Sinosphere food of Chinese origin can be viewed with suspicion due to the known environmental degradation of Chinese farmland, as well as the many food adulteration scandals.

Malaysia makes a lot of sense; there is a lot of cuisine overlap, it is right next door, and Singapore actually started its modern life by getting kicked out of Malaysia. (That whole saga is interesting; as far as I know Singapore may be the rare example of a country unwillingly becoming independent. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Singapore_in_Malaysia)

Given we are talking about meat I thought your linked plot looked weird (Australia was way too small). Then I realised that you have to select 'Animal' rather than 'Food Products' to see just meat imports, with the expected suspects being there (Aus, NZ, Brazil, Malaysia and Indonesia).

I wonder how much of the French/UK imports are resold as duty free good’s especially champagne, spirits and LVHM luxury items.

Most people in Singapore try to food from China if possible.

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