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Food security and scarcity
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Sat, Feb 09, 2008
The Straits Times
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PR | ODUCE in low-cost China, consume in high-cost Japan. It was the perfect business model, or so everyone thought. It took the discovery in Japan of toxic insecticides in packages of China-made 'gyoza' dumplings to debunk the idea almost overnight. With thousands of Japanese having fallen ill from consuming the contaminated products, it is only too evident that even the best of surveillance systems can fail. This poison dumpling case clearly demonstrates the high risks involved when a country has to depend on imported food. It is even more so for a country like Singapore, which has to import practically all that its inhabitants consume.
For Japan, the problem this time was frozen dumplings from China. The Japanese have not forgotten that, last year, it was fresh vegetables from the same country. Ironically, the quality of China- made food products was never in question, since production plants were set up with Japanese expertise and conform to Japanese quality standards. But it took only a person or persons, deliberately or unwittingly, to shatter the illusion that consumables were all perfectly safe. Was this particular case the doing of disgruntled workers or troublemakers, on either side? Conspiracy theories posted on the Internet in China even suggest it was an attempt by the Japanese to discredit Chinese products and put Chinese companies out of business. Fortunately, Japan-China ties are mature enough for both governments to be able to handle the matter dispassionately. But the scare has heightened Japanese consumer fears about all things Chinese, not 'gyoza' alone. This is worrying - for both sides.
It is not practical to perform 100 per cent safety checks on food products. Increasing the degree of checks would drive up costs, making it unprofitable to produce overseas. Therein lies Japan's dilemma. Should it continue to whittle down its high-cost agricultural sector and shift production to low-cost centres in China and elsewhere? It may have little choice, given that the free trade agreements it has forged with other countries already put pressure on Japanese farmers. Singapore has no such dilemma in that it does not produce much food. Given its limited land resources, it had long decided it would not be feasible to do so. But just like Japan, it is increasingly dependent on food imports from China. If ever Chinese food contamination of some scale and variety were to turn up here, Singaporeans would arguably be hit even harder than the Japanese since there are no domestic food supplies to fall back on and contracting for new supply sources takes time. The Japanese example will be giving Singaporeans much food for thought.
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