KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) has urged the private sectors from Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah to invest in the pepper plantation sector, with the aim to become the top three pepper-producing countries among the International Pepper Community (IPC) in the next 10 years.
At the moment, MPB senior director Langgi Chaling said Malaysia stands at number four among the top five IPC countries in producing pepper, with 31,600 tonnes of peppers produced in 2021.
The ranking was topped by Vietnam, followed by Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka.
“We hope that in the next 10 years, we can jump from number four to number two as the price for this commodity will likely increase in the next three to four years to come,” he said during day two of the Malaysia International Agricommodity Expo and Summit (MIACES) 2022 here today.
With the improvisation in research and development and digitalisation, Langgi hoped the younger generation can also venture into the pepper production sector in order to help contribute to Malaysia’s gross domestic product (GDP).
“So far, we have about 39,000 pepper farmers in Malaysia and nearly 98 per cent of Malaysian pepper is produced in Sarawak with 70 per cent of local pepper exported as whole black pepper and the remaining as white pepper,” he said.
Export for the Malaysian pepper industry for 2021 was valued at RM153.74 million for 2021 for a total of 7,407 tonnes.
He also said that the price of black pepper has shown an increase of 79 per cent, while white pepper has increased by 60 per cent compared to 2020.
“The real challenges we are facing now are the lack of interest among the younger generation and higher cost of inputs for farming and intense competition among other crops such as palm oil and rubber,” he pointed out.
Meanwhile, for the cocoa industry, Malaysian Cocoa Board deputy director-general Maznah Abdul said Malaysia still has a potential market for cocoa, especially in Asia Pacific where chocolate consumption had increased in 2021.
“Cholocate market in Asia has grown consistently by 12.1 per cent per year over the period of five years and we also see new emerging markets for chocolate consumption too,” she said.
She said Malaysia exports most of the chocolate products to Japan, China, South Korea, Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
Last year, Malaysia’s cocoa exports were valued at RM6.9 billion, while the import value stood at RM6.3 billion.
“The value of cocoa exports had increased over the period of 2010 to 2021, with the main contributors to export earnings being cocoa butter and cocoa powder,” she added. — BERNAMA
