After Growing Strawberries In S’pore, He Now Wants To Produce Grapes…And Maybe Our First Local Wine

Sustenir’s latest offerings are grown-in-Singapore strawberries, a fruit that normally thrives in cooler climates at about 16°C to 27°C. “The plant itself takes about eight months to grow fruit and flower at the same time. From the point of flowering to becoming a fruit, it takes about two weeks outdoors, but we’ve managed to reduce that to as much as half [through our R&D],” says Benjamin.

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At $12 per 200g punnet, Sustenir has kept its pricing for the Splendid Strawberries comparable to seasonal ones from Japan and Korea, albeit higher than US imports that average $6.50 per 250g punnet. But, hey, at least you know these are grown here and didn't have to endure a
long flight to get to you.

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8 DAYS: You were working in banks before this. How did you get the idea to start Sustenir?

BENJAMIN: When I first came up with the idea of Sustenir, I was actually on the MRT and had read an article [about farming] on Facebook. That was my a-ha moment. I was looking at illustrations on the article and I thought I could do it better. I went home that night, jumped on [architectural software] ArchiCAD and designed what you see in our [flagship] facility today. I still have the rendering in my phone. I had an idea of what growing would look like, but had no background in agriculture. So I literally had to travel the globe — everywhere from Japan to Amsterdam — and speak with professors and farmers. Everyone’s growing differently around the world, but not having that agricultural background allowed me to think outside the box.

What gave you the confidence to switch careers?

It was a very calculated decision. I spent the better part of 18 months trialing different products in my business partner’s basement. At that point, I was working in UOB as a regional brand manager, and I’ve worked at Citibank as a regional project manager. It didn’t make sense for the first 12 months ’cos the cost of the technology, like LED lights, were far too expensive. Taking that business acumen I’ve developed over the years working with banks, it all boiled down to that Excel sheet that I was working from to figure out how I was gonna grow. In Singapore where rent and electricity are expensive, you have to maximise your yield within your footprint, and that was my mandate and the problem I had to solve. That’s how I learned to grow — from an Excel sheet, rather than take traditional farming and plug it into a building. Similarly, now, we’re not going to jump into anything. I’m not going to get up tomorrow and say, “Let’s start growing grapes.” We’re going to test it first to see if it makes business sense to make that leap.

What was it like juggling your bank job and, er, growing plants out of a basement?

(Laughs) This was under my business partner’s pool in a basement, right around the corner from Orchard Road. I couldn’t even stand up properly in the basement. We were growing arugula, spinach, microgreens — [lots of] leafy greens, herbs, spices and even edible flowers. I was working at Citibank then and would finish calls at 1am and go down to the basement to take measurements of plants till 4am. I wanted to understand not only how to grow, but how to optimise growth.

Prior to that, what did you use to grow at home, either in Singapore or in Australia?

Nothing! I have the furthest thing from a green thumb! I had to learn growing from my best friends, Professor YouTube and Dr Google. (Chuckles)

What do you grow at home right now?

I’ve got a whole facility to grow in! But we eat Sustenir products at home, of course. I consume a lot of kale, probably about 200g a day. I try to have it for lunch and dinner most days. For breakfast, I usually have eggs. I believe in clean eating, and eating whole foods rather than fast food. I’m into health and fitness and I believe those things help you into a good way of life and also your professional career. If you’re not eating right and exercising, how are you going to have a sharp mind and be effective in your job?

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8 DAYS: In your opinion, what’s the best way to eat veggies?

BENJAMIN: Raw, for sure, if you can. As soon as you cook it, you kill some of the good nutrients that are in there. Even juicing kills some of the nutrients. That’s why we’ve spent so much time listening to the plants, finding out what they need and understanding how to change those taste profiles so that it’s more palatable for Singaporeans to eat them raw.

Is it an occupational hazard to tell people to eat veggies?

Yes. (Guffaws) I’m always like, “What are you eating? Go and have some kale!”

What other unconventional products can we expect in the near future?

We grow great cherry tomatoes indoors, so why not grapes? And if we grow grapes, why not do a Singapore wine? We’re already trying to get to our suppliers to get the seeds or cuttings, both for edible grapes and grapes for wine production. You’re not going to grow an avocado tree indoors ’cos it takes two years before it starts to grow any fruit, so you’ll go bankrupt by that time or even before you bring a fruit to market. There are a lot of products that we can grow that have a shorter life cycle. The sky’s the limit, but it’s got to make financial sense.

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This was one of the trials happening in the R&D lab when we visited. They were experimenting “with the wavelength of light to see how to enhance the nuttiness, which is the characteristic of our kale that a lot of customers love,” Benjamin explains.

Sustenir produce is available at major supermarkets and http://www.susteniragriculture.com/.