Local production of strawberries now possible with world’s first climate-resilient agritech

Singaporeans can now taste locally-produced strawberries as a result of Singaporean startup Singrow’s agritech developments. 

Singrow has launched an agri-genomics farm that can harvest high-quality crops for the local agriculture industry on Tuesday (Apr 11). Besides being GMO-free, the crops are produced without fertilisers and pesticides. 

Established in 2019, Singrow integrates its organic cultivation techniques with plant science and innovative farming technologies.

Because of the technology in the farm, it has achieved 20 times more crop yield, uses 30 per cent less production time and is 40 per cent more energy efficient than regular farms.

Prior to this, Singapore had been relying on imported strawberries due to the unsuitable climate conditions for strawberry cultivation. According to a Facebook post by Singrow, the average temperature in Singapore is between 23 to 34 degrees Celsius while the ideal temperature for planting strawberries is between 15 to 22 degrees Celsius.

Singrow’s strawberries can grow in a warmer climate due to the cross-breeding of the produce.

Singrow founder and National University of Singapore (NUS) alumni, Dr Bao Sheng Jie, sparked an interest in plant physiology and molecular biology when he discovered that Singapore’s strawberries tasted vastly different from the ones in his hometown in Zhejiang, China.

Singrow plans to franchise farms in more tropical countries like Malaysia and Thailand to provide a wider range of crops. A memorandum of understanding was signed by Singrow for farmers and communities in the area to have access to its technologies. 

The firm not only specialises in seasonal-bearing strawberries, but cherry tomatoes and Komatsuna spinach as well. 

The locally-produced strawberries and strawberry seedling kits are available for purchase on Blooom’s website.