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In land-scarce Singapore, Sustenir uses innovative technology, such as sunlight-mimicking lights and smart indoor space utilisation, to produce vegetables efficiently all year round.
Every month, Sustenir supplies FairPrice stores with four to five tonnes of fresh fresh salad greens and mixes with interesting names such as Spectacular Spinach, Almighty Arugula and Super Kale, which is a popular curly kale.
Grown hydroponically — without soil — these fresh, tender and sweet leaves are clean and safe to nibble on as they are grown in the local urban farm’s indoor vertical farming space in Admiralty.
Did you know that only 1% of Singapore's land is set aside for farming? Sustenir is one of several urban farms using agritech to aid farming in our land-scarce nation. Farms like Sustenir can produce up to 10 times more crops than conventional farms by employing hydroponics and indoor vertical farming techniques, as well as through creative land use like growing crops on rooftops.
Tech advances have allowed local farms like Sustenir to farm intensively, all year round.
A commitment to food resilience and quality produce motivates modern local farmers like Jack Moy.
Sustenir’s produce starts its life in three rooms spanning a total of 2,220 sq m on different levels in a commercial building. The first, on level 4, was set up to grow kale as a superfood. Level 7 is where spinach is grown. The room on level 3 was set up in 100 days during the COVID-19 pandemic to ramp up Singapore’s food resources.
To prevent contamination, staff use an air shower to remove any physical particles before entering the rooms.
Each farm room may have about 40 modular grow racks, which can be up to 3m tall.
Special LED lights mimic sunlight, allowing produce to be grown vertically in very little space. Jack explains that every plant has a unique growth profile or “plant passport”, which determines the intensity and number of lights used for each species.
Sustenir uses a hydroponic irrigation system of filtered water and a special nutrient blend. Only powdered fertiliser is used. The water is tested for microbacterial count, ensuring the vegetables are ready to eat straight from the bag.
Seedlings are left in the nursery area for 23 to 27 days before being transferred to the grow rooms for harvesting later.
Jack says that kale generally takes about 80 days to grow. But thanks to Sustenir’s technology, produce can now be grown year-round without worrying about climate change. “The controlled environment lets us grow crops in impossible places,” he says. Sustenir’s latest innovation is Kalming Kale, grown with specially selected seeds in a controlled environment to produce more gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA), which is believed to have calming benefits.
In a separate packing room, staff in full-bodied scrubs perform quality control, sorting and bagging the harvested vegetables for delivery to supermarkets islandwide.
FairPrice helps local farms enter the retail market by stocking their produce as part of SFA’s Retail Incubation Initiative.
We set aside $2.9 million last year to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as part of our SME Suppliers Support and Development programme introduced in 2012.
For more than a decade, the “Made in Singapore” Fair has introduced customers to food grown here.
Farms like Sustenir supply our stores directly with fresh food. Look for the SG Fresh Produce logo to identify their produce!
Steven Choo, FairPrice Category Manager (Vegetables)
You may know kang kong from spinach, but packaging labels can tell you so much more about your vegetables!
