MIRI, Feb 14: The Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development is looking at adopting methods implemented by the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) in the West Malaysia, to expand domestic downstream activities in pineapple farming.
In disclosing this earlier today after the unveiling of a new breed of pineapple known as Sarawak Gold 1 (SG1) or AC 16 at TG Agro Fruits in Sungai Tukau Miri, Minister for Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said, they plan to adopt research and development (R&D) methods in West Malaysia to locally to increase downstream activities involving the fruit.
Thus, he said, farmers should start to venture into the pineapple farming industry instead of focusing on oil palm plantations.
“Sarawak has vast land for pineapple planting. Just imagine planting 20,000 pineapple plants on one acre of land—it could generate income of up to RM6,000 per month,” he explained.
Dr Rundi said innovation has helped create opportunities in pineapple farming beyond just food products, including in textile production.
“Via innovation, we can make clothes or handbags from pineapple leaf fibre, for example, bringing benefits to the communities,” he explained.
He also disclosed that his ministry is planning to introduce modern farming methods to encourage and attract the younger generation to work in the agriculture sector.
“We are very lucky…graduates are quite wiling to work in agriculture sector, meaning that there are still hope for them… I understand that we cannot expose them under the sun like our foreparents…but we can have modern farming that we could develop and introduce to better improve the sector,” he said.
Also present were Deputy Minister for Modernisation of Agriculture and Regional Development I (Modernisation of Agriculture) Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail, Deputy Minister for Youth, Sport and Entreprenuer Development II (Entreprenuer Development) Dr Ripin Lamat, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts I (Tourism) Datuk Sebastian Ting Chiew Yew, Miri Resident Abdul Aziz Yusuf, the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) director-general Mohd Khairuzamri M Salleh and TG Agro Fruits managing director Dato’ Yap Foot Loy. — DayakDaily
