Government officials are pushing the potential of Malaysia’s eastern state of Sabah for large-scale horticultural projects aimed at both the domestic and export markets.
Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Yahya Hussin, the state Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry, told local media Sabah was a good potential location for the production of high quality tropical fruits.
“Sabah has strong potential as a state to produce tropical fruits of quality in Malaysia,” he said. “However, Sabah has still no large scale producer or exporter of fruits.”
Malaysian horticultural production is typically plagued by a shortage of land and the concomitant lack of scale.
Sabah and neighbouring Sarawak offer suitable land, but the region’s lack of infrastructure has so far held back serious developments, according to Ricky Yong, managing director of exporter South Fruits and president of the Malaysian Fruit Exporters Association.
“For Sabah or East Malaysia the problem is the logistics required for export, as we do not have many shipping lines operating directly from that area,” he told Fruitnet.com, adding that only the Maersk and Evergreen lines currently cover the region.
“It is more appropriate to identify suitable land in Peninsula Malaysia to grow and increase our production due to logistics reasons.”
Mr Yahya’s statement came after a visit to the Minister’s office by Exotic Star Sdn Bhd director Jeffrey Choong Wong Thiam this week, reported Bernama.
Exotic Star is a producer and exporter of exotic fruit, particularly papaya and jackfruit, based on the Malaysian peninsula, and according to Mr Choong the company plans to cooperate with the state government to begin commercial farming in Sabah.
That endorsement comes just a few weeks afterthe announcement of a joint effortbetween the Sabah Land Development Board (SLDB) and the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board to set up 800ha of pineapple production in the region.
