This image shows a rendering of an egg layer farm to be built by Ise Foods Holdings Pte. Ltd. (Photo courtesy of the Singapore Food Agency/NNA/Kyodo)

       SINGAPORE (NNA/Kyodo) -- Japan's top egg producer Ise Foods Inc. will invest over S$100 million ($74.5 million) to open a state-of-the-art egg farm in Singapore to help the city-state achieve its food security objective.

       Ise Foods Holdings Pte. Ltd., of which Ise Foods owner Hikonobu Ise is the majority shareholder, concluded a memorandum of understanding with the Singapore Food Agency last Friday to build the egg farm, making the Tokyo-based firm Singapore's fourth egg farm operator.

       Under the deal, Ise Foods will open an egg layer farm and a day-old-chick hatchery in Lim Chu Kang, a parent stock pullet farm in Tuas, and a parent stock layer farm in Sungei Tengah.

       Construction will begin in 2022, and the facilities featuring remote monitoring of day-old chicks, advanced climate control and odor and waste management systems will be operational between 2024 and 2026.

       The farm will have a maximum annual capacity of 360 million eggs and 5 million day-old chicks, helping Singapore to procure about half of its egg needs domestically, up from about 28 percent at present.

       The Singapore Food Agency hailed Ise Foods' foray into the Southeast Asian country, noting that the firm is Japan's largest egg producer and one of the world's six biggest.

       "It is Ise's first overseas project where we are building up the entire ecosystem locally," the Ise Foods owner said, expressing a hope to carry out similar sustainable farm-of-the-future operations in other countries.

       He added that his firm is looking for Singaporean partners to conduct research and development in fields such as genetic breeding.

       Singapore is aiming to boost its food self-sufficiency rate to 30 percent by 2030 from less than 10 percent now.

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