Building Sustainable Food Futures

MLA held a Building Sustainable Food Futures forum in Singapore this month, exploring high value red meat opportunities with potential partners interested in research and innovation in this space.

There are significant opportunities for Australian beef, lamb and goat in the South East Asia region. The forum focused on educating Singaporean companies about our red meat industry and the opportunities to extract higher value from the market.

Opened by the Australian Deputy High Commissioner to Singapore, Kate Duff, and supported by Enterprise Singapore and the Food Innovation and Resource Centre, the forum attracted over 100 attendees from local food and innovation organisations.

Five key themes were explored where innovative products, services and technologies could potentially capture high value:

• Snacking 'on-the-go' and social occasions
• Personalised nutrition/connected foods
• Ageing population/multigenerational households
• Food security and safety
• Health and wellness

Feedback from the participants confirmed that there are some quick win opportunities in the snacking category to leverage Australian meat’s ‘clean, green’ reputation. MLA will run design sprint workshops later this year to build on some of these insights and further explore new product ideas for the market.

We also identified a number of short term opportunities to work with participants on introducing red meat into existing market opportunities that meet today’s consumer needs.

There were interesting discussions around the role of red meat in a healthy diet, the role of government in setting nutritional guidelines and the impact of these on an ageing population. Further research will be conducted by MLA in these areas so that we can effectively engage with partners in the region.

Overall, this forum has given us a deeper understanding of consumer insights that will inform and frame our ongoing research in the region. MLA will continue to engage with the Singapore food and innovation community and develop partnerships to drive further growth for Australian red meat.

You can find more information here or email us at enquiry.sg@mla.com.au.