The farm-to-table philosophy is not a new concept in Singapore. But one company is on a mission to make local produce more accessible to locals, and Singapore’s F&B scene.
Having observed the misconceptions and difficulties associated with local farms and their produce, new initiative Backyard Productions by food supplier FoodXervices Inc aims to tackle those issues, and encourage proper education about the bounty of fresh food found in our country.
Championing local produce, Backyard Productions consolidates ingredients from our local farms, eliminating the need for farmers to reach out directly to restaurants across the island. With Backyard Productions, farmers can also abstain from paying for expensive third party logistics, since the company already has the resources to do so.
And as the middleman, Backyard is also able to work with both the farms and buyers (be it restaurants, consumers or supermarkets), to innovate and curate suitable, sustainable ingredients. By bearing access to demand insights from FoodXervices Inc’s network, the company maintains an ecosystem of transparency and a mutually constitutive relationship between all stakeholders. Win-win-win.
Says Nichol Ng, Managing Director of FoodXervices Inc: “The main intention of Backyard Productions is to assist farms in bridging gaps in terms of logistics and network marketing. While much has already been done with supermarkets, food service establishments are still slow to warm up to local produce because of the higher prices and inconsistent supplies as farms ramp up.”
“But when a player such as FoodXervices Inc takes away the distribution and last mile deliveries, farms can focus on getting the best produce reared and farmed. We also share our customers’ feedback directly with the farms. In fact, they are usually at the same table when we speak to key clients. We do not function like a delivery platform or third-party logistics service but as a business partner to farms to curate the basket of products that the local F&B community can accept and need. It is a consolidated effort—each of us focus on what we do best and the best produce is served.”
In getting Backyard Productions up and running, the team has also thought of creating the icon of local produce: The Singapore Salad. A bag of greens—chock-full of nutrients—farmed entirely locally. As Ng puts it, the Singapore Salad symbolises what Singapore can produce: a signature blend from our best farms, something locals can look forward to picking up and enjoying.
Photo: SG Magazine/Sharmaine Loh
The brand is truly here to make a statement, one that focuses on the fact that Singapore’s produce are in no way inferior to imports. In fact, believers in the social movement of farm-to-table will already know that fresh food is better for a myriad of reasons, especially the fact that it has a longer shelf-life since airtime is eliminated.
Ng also notes: “I can feel that we are on the cusp of something big and the Covid-19 pandemic has made food safety and food security a priority for F&B establishments and consumers alike. With improvements to technology, we can not only control the nutrition, taste and diversity of the crops, but at a certain time, we can bring prices down too.”
“Will they ever be as cheap as those mass land grown? Maybe never, but with the climate issues that we see now, will we even have sufficient land to grow food the way we consume now?”
She also leaves us with something to think about: can you really put a price tag on safety, health and sustainability?
Learn more about what Backyard Productions does here.
