Archive for the 'rising prices' Category

Is land really scarce in Singapore?

choongyong.koh April 19th, 2008

There are many occasions in which we hear from the Government that certain things cannot be done because we are in “land scarce” Singapore.

Two recent pieces of news appearing on the same day (17 Apr 2008) led me to think again:

The first article proudly announces allocation of more than 30ha of land to “nurture young, high-value trees to meet future demands for landscaping in Singapore”.

The second article mentioned a new 4.36 million sq feet newly built centralised pig farm in Malaysia. According to the article, this facility is a possible future source of pork for Singapore, but it is also quick to point out “while Sarawak might be close by, the rising cost of feeding pigs, and transporting them them might not make pork that much cheaper”.

A quick google convert (just type “convert 30 hectares to sq feet” into your google search box) tells me that 30ha is 3.23 million sq feet, probably about 3/4 of the land needed for the centralised pig farm. (If it is one-storey high. However, I don’t see why a centralised pig farm cannot be multi-storey.)

So the next question on my mind was that, if Singapore has enough land to grow trees for landscaping purposes, will Singapore have enough land to build itself a centralised pig farm? What best way to reduce transportation costs than to locally produce it? Will “land-scarce Singapore” be the retort to such a thought?

There used to be pig farms in Singapore in Punggol, but due to the planned (but not materialized） Punggol 21 development, the farms were discontinued. I am not sure if the farmers were given a choice to relocate, or whether they chose to give up on farming. However, with the global climate of rising food prices and rising transportation costs, pork prices have also gone on a steady (but not as drastic rise as rice prices) increase over the years.

AVA’s strategy so far to fight the world-wide food price inflation, is to diversify food sources by going to ever further countries to secure food supplies. Maybe it is time to develop and strengthen the local food supply, which for the past few years have only been producing less than 13 % of fish, 28% of eggs and 5% vegetables that we consume.

Land is not scarce in Singapore if proper planning goes into each project, as the second page of the SLA annual report this year puts it:

SPACE IS LIMITED ONLY BY YOUR IMAGINATION
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Hyper-inflation : early warning signs

choongyong.koh March 4th, 2008

Hyper-inflation : early warning signs
http://www.post1.net/lowem/entry/hyper_inflation_early_warning_signs

lowen, who wrote this article, has been spending a lot of time on tracking financial signals. This post shows that although the official CPI is high, it is not as high as the actual increases incurred by the man-on-the-street.

Personally for one of my ‘necessity food’ also saw a marked increase over just the last few months. My favourite biscuit is the Kong Guan Lemon Puff, which I will munch during the wee hours when I work. For a long time it was priced at $1.40 - $1.50 (depending on which NTUC FairPrice you go). However, in my grocery shopping visit yesterday to the Hougang Point FairPrice, I saw that it is now selling at $2.20. Taking $1.50 as the original price, I still get a 46.66% price increase!

Bread Index vs Food Index

choongyong.koh November 28th, 2007

The Department of Statistics replied (clipclip link) to a Straits Time forum post, citing figures that the overall food index has risen 4.6% over that in 2006.  Compare this with the informal “Bread Index” my friend lowen blogged about.

Decide for yourself, which figure is closer to your actual experiences in paying for food over the last few months?

Electricity Tariffs up again

choongyong.koh June 18th, 2007

Just realised that the quarterly revision of electricity tariffs is due again. http://www.singaporepower.com.sg/publish/PR/Files/Approve/PR15_6391.html

It still puzzles me that, since 80% of our electricity is generated using natural gas, why is it that the regulated electricity tariffs are pegged to the price of future fuel oil price? From what I see it is just to make it look good. “See, an increase in 20% of future fuel oil prices only results in 8% increase in your tariff”.
Granted that there could be some relationship between the price of natural gas and fuel oil price, but the fundamental question is: “How is the cost of electricity generation derived in Singapore?” There has been no figures released on the breakdown for the various cost components of electricity generation, so it is anyone’s guess whether it is justifiable to increase the electricity tariffs by 8% with an increase in 20% of the future fuel oil prices.

Another thought is that, with the NEMS (National Electricity Market of Singapore) being the market where electricity is bought and sold, is SingPower’s ‘cost price’ actually a function of the price of electricity in the NEMS? If so, the cost price is even one step more removed from the quoted reason of increase in fuel oil prices.

All I am asking is: when future fuel oil price seems so far removed from the actual cost of supplying power to the consumers in Singapore, why quote that as a reason? Why can’t we have more transparent information that is more convincing?