Can Mushroom Farming Help Achieve Singapore's Food Security Goals? Ryan Ong of Fogo Fungi
episode
BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
35 min
1 speaker
8 chapters
transcribed 16 days ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Why are “weirdos” drawn to the mushroom industry and what does that mean for growers?
How do you find somebody who's interested in mushrooms? Are they like
weirdo people?
Yeah. Like how would you know that they actually like mushrooms?
Yeah, we see a lot of weirdos or anodoglots people being attracted to the mushroom industry. I mean mushrooms generally are pretty weird. We don't really see them so much in the supermarkets because of the whole shipping and logistics problem, right? It's the co-chain, the logistics is a complex issue. With the short shelf life of mushrooms, it's quite difficult to make them accessible because real estate is so expensive over here. We are only gonna set aside one percent or lands for farming. So with such a small country in your own. Taking a small fraction of land to do farming, we've come to terms that we will never be able to produce enough food to feed our whole country. Mm. And we are very heavily reliant on imports.
Mm-hmm. At present, Singapore imports over 90% of food. So I think with parameters such as size of the country and land scarcity, high labor costs, high energy costs, farming is incredibly difficult to do in Singapore. Couple that with very picky Singaporeans and low consumption. Consumption demand for local produce, yeah, it becomes very tricky for you to navigate how exactly to solve this issue or how exactly to survive in this industry. Mm.
When it comes to farming, not something AI can replace, right? That's still a very hands-on, laborious aspect of it. Mm-hmm. Entering the farming industry as a very young farmer in a time where the industry is not doing so well, I think that's one of the bravest things I've done recently. It's not an easy journey.
Welcome to Brave. Learn from Southeast Asia's best tech leaders. Build the future, learn from our past, and stay human in between. No BS on success. I'm Jeremy Al, Venture Capitalist, Sierra founder, Harvard MBA, science fiction nerd, and dad of two daughters. Every week, we debate startup news, interview change makers, answer listener questions, and share personal insights. Join our movement of over 40,000 members and get transcripts, resources, and community at www.bravesdea.com. Command. Stay well and stay brave. Hey, so excited to have you on the show. You're building Fogo Fun Guy, which is, I guess you're a fun guy. I'm sorry, that pun there. But you're a founder who is uh building in the mushroom space.
And so I think a great intersection of agriculture, entrepreneurship, and leadership in Singapore and Southeast Asia. Could you introduce yourself?
Very nice to meet you, Jeremy. I'm Ryanong, founder of Fogo Fun Guy. And we are Singapore Indoor Mushroom Farm growing a wide variety of komi mushrooms for Chefs, hotels, restaurants and general consumers. A lot
of the kind of
mushrooms
that you do.
How did Ryan pivot from a family hospitality business to founding an indoor mushroom farm?
Yeah, we do over nine varieties right now. We kind of rotate between different varieties depending on the season and market demand. But Quick favorites of mine that we grow right now, lion's main mushroom.
Mm-hmm.
The Pio Pino mushrooms and a bunch of different oyster mushrooms in colours that you probably didn't know about. Blue oyster, pink oyster, what? Golden Oyster and the edible.
What? I gotta come by and treat myself to some of those. I didn't even know you could have blue or golden oysters mushrooms. I mean the ones in the supermarket we call it cream coloured or
Yeah. Normal colored. I don't know. Usually cream, grey or brown colored mushrooms in the supermarkets. Well, we grow exotic varieties. There's no genetic modification or artificial colouring. Uh there's just tens and thousands of edible species of fungi and mushrooms. But we don't really see them so much in the supermarkets because of the whole shipping and logistics problem, right? It's the coaching logistics is a complex issue. And it's with the short shelf life. off mushrooms, it's quite difficult to make them accessible to supermarkets. So Yeah, farms like ourselves growing locally.
Yeah.
gives consumers greater access to more interesting colours and flavours of mushrooms.
Okay. I mean I've got there's so much to go. I've got to go back in time, but quickly, is there any taste difference or is it just a color difference?
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
Why are “weirdos” drawn to the mushroom industry and what does that mean for growers?
0:00–2:37
2
How did Ryan pivot from a family hospitality business to founding an indoor mushroom farm?
2:37–6:07
3
What sparked the idea for Fogo Fungi and how did a random YouTube video become a startup?
6:07–10:03
4
Do mushrooms really grow in the dark? What myths did Ryan debunk about mushroom cultivation?
10:03–14:16
5
Why can gourmet mushrooms like Pink Oyster and Lion’s Mane be sold at $50/kg while button mushrooms can’t?
14:16–18:28
6
How does Singapore’s “30‑by‑30” food‑security goal and the 1 % land limit affect indoor mushroom farming?
18:28–23:11
7
What are the biggest cost killers for modern vertical farms and why do many shut down?
23:11–28:28
8
How can local mushroom farms create a sustainable business model and win over chefs, hotels, and eventually supermarkets?
28:28–35:46
Speakers
1 identifiedMore from BRAVE Southeast Asia Tech: Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand & Malaysia Startups, Founders & Venture Capital VC (English)
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