Bright prospects for pineapple cultivation in Sabah and Sarawak

Sabah and Sarawak are set to become key pineapple suppliers, with the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) targeting to cultivate 15,000ha of the fruit in each state.

 

Board chairman Datuk Hasni Mohammad said both states had the necessary conditions and land to become the country’s premier pineapple growers.

He said the land could be developed in clusters or via cooperatives to enable the people, particularly the hardcore poor, to participate in the industry.

 

Hasni, who said this during a meeting with Chief Minister Datuk Musa Aman yesterday, added that MPIB would provide financial assistance, technical know-how and marketing expertise to help pineapple growers in both states succeed.

In Sabah, MPIB would be working with the Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) which was also embarking on cultivating 120ha of the renowned Babagon pineapples in Penampang, near here.

Hasni said MPIB would be able to start work as early as next year, and that a Sabah regional office had been opened to lay the groundwork.

 

However, what was needed was the extension the Pineapple Industry Act by Parliament to both states, he added.

The Act had to be amended to include Sabah and Sarawak under its jurisdiction, and a draft agreeable to all parties has already been prepared, he added.

 

Hasni said MPIB would work closely with SLDB to introduce schemes to encourage smallholders to plant pineapples with a guaranteed buy-back, as well as help small and medium-scale livestock farmers to use pineapples as feedstock.

 

According to Hasniat, at present, some five to seven container loads were being exported weekly to the Middle East.

“We find that even the Koreans and Japanese are seeking Malaysian-grown pineapples, and it is difficult to expand our acreage in the peninsular,” he added.