IPB-IORA
Workshop
On 24–25 July 2025, NUS IORA hosted the IPB–IORA academic and industry workshop in Singapore. The workshop created a platform for knowledge exchange, collaborative research discussions and practical learning across innovation, food systems and supply-chain management.
First Day: Institutional, Academic, and Campus Exchange
The workshop began with welcome and institutional messages from NUS and IPB University leaders, followed by an overview of the Collaborative Research Program, parallel discussions and group presentations.
The IPB delegation also visited key NUS facilities, including the SIA–NUS Digital Aviation Corp Lab, University Town, and the School of Computing’s Computing Gallery.
Second Day: Food and Logistics Ecosystem Visits
The second day focused on Singapore’s food distribution and logistics ecosystem. At Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre, the participants learned about the wholesale trading and distribution of fresh produce, while the visit to PSA highlighted the role of global transhipment in connecting container flows worldwide.
The delegation also visited Sunpride to observe fruit-import operations, warehousing and banana-ripening facilities, and YCH Group’s Supply Chain City to gain insights into integrated supply-chain management across the Asia-Pacific region.
Stay tuned for more updates, and check out the highlights from our workshop through our photo gallery!
These provide useful settings for future case analysis and research on demand, harvest, and logistics networks.
Overall, the IPB–IORA workshop combined institutional and academic exchange with exposure to NUS facilities and Singapore’s food and logistics ecosystem, strengthening relationships, facilitating knowledge exchange, and providing a richer basis for collaborative research.
1) Sunpride’s banana-ripening and warehousing operations provide a particularly direct point of connection to shelf-life, inventory, and timing decisions.
2) Pasir Panjang Wholesale Centre offers a view of produce trading and distribution.
3) PSA and YCH broaden the perspective to container flows and network coordination.
The two-day workshop linked leadership engagement and academic exchange with visits to organizations involved in distribution, trade, and logistics. This can help researchers move from high-level questions to a more concrete understanding of where decisions, information, and operational constraints arise. The visits highlighted key banana supply-chain research areas:
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