The Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), formalised in 2024, has been widely heralded as a catalyst for cross-border economic integration. Beyond its commercial promise, the zone presents a critical opportunity to strengthen food security – a foundational component of social and political stability for Singapore and Malaysia. While food security is one of the 11 focal sectors for the zone, it risks being eclipsed by higher-value sectors such as advanced manufacturing, finance and digital services. To maximise the potential for food security, the JS-SEZ comprehensive blueprint must contain provisions to promote the agrifood sector.
Despite relatively high rankings in the Global Food Security Index (2022), with Singapore at 28th and Malaysia at 41st, both countries remain vulnerable to external shocks, particularly climate change. Singapore’s over-dependence on food imports and Malaysia’s declining production underscore the fragile equilibrium they navigate. Singapore imports over 90 per cent of its food from 170 countries, but still faces supply concentration risks. For instance, Malaysia’s 2022 chicken export ban underscored the city-state’s dependence on regional supply chains; Singapore then looked to Indonesia and others as a partial solution. Furthermore, Singapore’s “30 by 30” policy to increase domestic food production is struggling to become a reality.
Malaysia is a net food producer but faces declining self-sufficiency ratios, particularly in rice, wheat and corn. Under-investment in agricultural research and development (R&D), declining farm labour, market inefficiencies and a weakened currency have compounded food price inflation and domestic shortages. Malaysia’s environment ministry has projected dry spells that will impact agriculture, while plans for increasing production are facing headwinds due to high competition from imports and low domestic productivity.
As such, the JS-SEZ presents a unique platform to align Malaysia’s comparative advantage in land and resources with Singapore’s strengths in logistics, innovation and capital. If institutionalised within the SEZ’s broader strategic planning, prioritising a food security agenda can unlock several benefits, including enhancing bilateral food resilience and trade, stimulating rural economic development and creating a replicable model for food hubs across ASEAN.
The SEZ spans over 3,500 square kilometres, four times the size of Singapore. Of its districts, food sector development has been earmarked for Desaru, where 60 per cent of land will be dedicated to agriculture and Sedenak (currently dominated by palm oil plantations). The coastal zone of Pontian, which already houses more than 8,000 kelongs of prawn, tilapia and grouper, is another possible development area. Yet there is no incentive for agri-food businesses to be limited to these areas; farms and food businesses have been setting up anywhere costs are competitive.
To truly maximise the development of these zones for agri-food, the following options could be considered for the Blueprint. First, the establishment of ‘food security hubs’: the JS‑SEZ could host a multi‐stakeholder hub to co‐locate farmers (smallholders and larger producers), cooperatives, government bodies, R&D institutions, logistics providers and private investors. It could draw inspiration from other agro-hubs like the Netherlands’ Foodvalley or Vietnam’s Food Innovation Hub. Such a hub would centralise procurement, mechanisation, post‐harvest handling, crop management and traceability services, to enhance productivity, reduce waste and ensure consistent surpluses for strategic stockpiling.
Second, the Blueprint can include agricultural incentives and equity schemes. While Johor’s State Agro-Food Policy (DANJo) is promoting agricultural modernisation and technology proliferation, this needs to be complemented by farmer-centred incentive schemes. When farmers are rewarded for higher yields or sustainable practices, they have a stronger incentive to invest in their crops, making it more likely they will attract the private capital they need to scale up. Schemes, such as a shared equity structure, could be introduced to attract serious farmers by encouraging them to hold ownership stakes alongside public and private partners. This would align the interests of all players towards sustained growth.
Third, the Blueprint can prioritise research partnerships and skills development across the border. Johor- and Singapore-based research institutes could accelerate innovation in climate-resilient agriculture and build future agri-leadership capacity, including for the region. Siting talent development programmes in universities and technical colleges could attract the human resources needed for the JS-SEZ’s growth.
Finally, the establishment of bio-secure zones (areas with enhanced measures to prevent the introduction and spread of diseases or pests) in the JS-SEZ that are aligned with the World Organisation for Animal Health’s (WOAH) standards could mitigate the risks of zoonotic disease outbreaks and enable continued production and trade even amid epidemiological disruptions.
In an era defined by polycrisis, a deliberate, cross-sectoral effort by both governments to position the JS-SEZ as a regional agri-food innovation and production hub would strengthen bilateral ties, enhance food self-sufficiency and support adjacent sectors such as logistics, biotech and agri-technology. Moreover, this approach would align with Malaysia’s National Food Security Policy Action Plan 2021-2025 and Singapore’s 30 by 30 strategy, offering a platform for synergy rather than siloed implementation.
To fully realise this potential, a food security strategy must be explicitly integrated into the JS-SEZ blueprint that will be finalised by end-2025. It requires deliberate, facilitative measures by both governments to ease inclusive platforms for collaboration among the people, the private sector and academia. Concurrently, both governments will need to create pathways for talent development, as well as cross-jurisdictional policy alignment and infrastructural investment. This will be a marathon effort that, if successful, could be a model for future regional collaborations. However, focus needs to be paid from inception, lest the opportunity for the JS-SEZ to contribute meaningfully to the food security of both nations slip away.
Elyssa Kaur Ludher is a Visiting Fellow with the Climate Change in Southeast Asia Programme, ISEAS - Yusof Ishak Institute.
Angaindrankumar Gnanasagaran is a Manager of Strategic Partnerships at the Global Institute for Tomorrow (GIFT), a pan-Asian think tank dedicated to helping organisations navigate the seismic shifts shaping our world.
This article was first published in Fulcrum, ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute’s blogsite
