Singapore grants temporary exemption and streamlines approval process for poultry meat

The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) has temporarily exempted Australian poultry meat exports from requiring official government veterinary ante-mortem and post-mortem inspection.

The exemption applies to both chilled and frozen poultry meat products. It is currently scheduled to end on 31 August 2022.

The SFA has also streamlined the listing process for Australian poultry establishments intending to export chilled poultry meat products to Singapore. This has led to several new Australian establishments receiving approval from the SFA.

Implications for Australian exporters

The temporary exemption and streamlined listing approval process has created new market opportunities for Australian exporters. A similar, but less comprehensive, exemption in 2020 led to a substantial increase in Australian poultry exports to Singapore (see Figure 1). 

Australian poultry exports to Singapore

Singapore is typically a minor market for Australian poultry meat. However, when the SFA implemented a similar exemption in 2020, Singapore became Australia’s fourth most valuable poultry meat export market in that year ($7.9 million, 9% of total exports).

Singapore is a major global market for poultry meat and live chickens. In 2019 to 2021, Singapore imported an average of $381 million of poultry meat and $214 million of live chicken (TradeMap 2022).

Figure 1: Australian poultry meat exports 2018 to 2022

Resources

For detailed information about the exemption, please see Market Access Advice 2233 issued by the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF). Login is required.

The Australian Government’s network of Agriculture Counsellors provided information for this article. More information about the Agriculture Counsellor network, including contact details, is available on the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries website.