Singapore, the world-renowned island country and city-state located in Southeast Asia, is a highly valued location in both the region and across the planet for much more than its jaw-dropping touristic sites such as the cloud forest or the city’s one of a kind waterfront destination, Mary Bay Sands. The city-state boasts the second busiest container port on the planet, having moved 39.01 million TEUs or twenty- foot equivalent units, in 2023 alone (The Straight Times, 2024).
This strategically located, high-tech epicentre of maritime commercial and transshipment activity connects to over 120 countries and has enabled Singapore itself to benefit greatly due to its necessity to import 90% of all food consumed by its multicultural citizens. As such, the Singapore Food Agency has taken strides in its mission to diversify import sources, ensuring they can safeguard their citizens and minimize the impact caused by vulnerable, global food supply chain disruptions.
These diversification efforts have created great opportunities for European products to enter the market, such as European beef – given that Singapore’s beef imports totalled over $270 million in 2023 (ICEX, 2024). During Provacuno’s last visit to Singapore, they were able to discuss the current state of the local beef market, consumer preferences and opportunities for European beef from Spain, summarized below.
Though Australia holds a majority of the beef market share of Singapore, consumers have begun exploring an array of different sources of beef for consumption, and demand for specific breeds like Rubia Gallega has seen an uptick since 2019. This is bolstered by its population’s trips abroad, through which they discover foreign ingredients that they will, in turn, request to see in their local shops upon their return to Singapore. Consumers in Singapore value fresh, grain fed beef, and generally perceive Japanese beef to be of very high quality, followed by U.S. and British beef, closely followed by Australia and then Brazil. This combination of product preferences in the Singaporean market opens the opportunity for European beef breeds to carve a slice of the market, by competing with beef from other countries. For this reason, focusing promotional activities on the unique aspects that European cattle breeds is considered mandatory.
Despite the opportunities available for European beef, it’s worth noting that Singapore has a relatively small market size in comparison to other countries in the region. Thus, it is imperative for companies looking to export their products to Singapore, to develop good relationships with a local partner and focus on understanding all relevant aspects related to consumer preferences, to successfully capitalize on growing the growing opportunity.
And that is why, through the European campaign Time 4 European Beef, PROVACUNO (the Spanish Beef Association) aims at boosting the knowledge of the European beef from Spain in the Singaporean market enhancing the features that makes our beef a wonderful product, suitable for the most demanding palates.
