BATU GAJAH: From motorcycles to salted eggs. Who would have thought that former motorcycle champion, Wazi Abdul Hamid, 50, would take that route? But he did, and successfully too.
During the early days of the movement control order (MCO) which was introduced to mitigate the spread of Covid-19, Wazi and some friends were involved in preparing and cooking food for the frontliners at Restoran Simpang Tiga, Ipoh, where he met a salted egg manufacturer who had been donating salted eggs for the same cause.
“I became interested in promoting the Pegro brand of salted egg which was a Bumiputera product from the Social Integration Farm, a project of the Perak State Agriculture Development Corporation (PPPNP) in Tanjung Tualang here.
“I was later appointed as a distributor after successfully selling thousands of Pegro salted eggs through my many contacts in motorcycle activities,” he told Bernama when met at the farm recently.
The Malaysian Cub Prix legend, now a father of 16, said to date, he had sold 20,000 salted eggs in Perak as well as Kuala Lumpur, Pahang and Kelantan.
These eggs are sold online at the recommended sale price set by PPPNP which is RM35 for a box-of-50 and RM5 for a pack-of-four.
“I would personally deliver the orders by truck with a delivery permit to those locations with a shipping fee of RM5 to all locations, even interstate,” he explained.
The salted eggs have been renamed ‘Telur Masin Wazi’ with some changes in packaging, an attractive egg box and sticker, at an extra cost of 80 cents per box.
However, at the moment, they are only open for online orders made on Wazi’s Facebook account or at the Global Ikhwan store in Rapat Setia as well as a store selling Muslim products in Meru, Ipoh.
“I am currently trying to penetrate supermarkets to allow more people to buy this product easily,” he said.
Meanwhile, PPPNP integrated agriculture operations manager Maghribi Mohamed said the demand for salted eggs during the MCO period had increased significantly, with almost 24,000 eggs sold in April this year compared to only 10,000 eggs in April last year.
He explained said the product by the farm was a collaborative effort with the Perak Agro Tourism Resort since 2014. The eggs have a special taste and are not too salty.
“Our products are also special as we use our own recipe mixture of clay, salt and rice husk, and we recite salutations for Prophet Muhammad before fermenting them for 15 days,” he said.
The two-acre farm has 1,693 ducks with production rate at about 1,300 eggs per day, he added.
According to Maghribi, the farm aims to rear 5,000 ducks by the end of the year.
In fact, they will be adding 1,000 black-footed or Khaki Campbell ducklings, a Thai hybrid, from a Teluk Intan supplier next month.
“We bought the two-day-old ducklings for RM3.50 each and they will start to lay eggs at the age of between 11 months and three years,” he explained.
He added that there are plans to expand the farm to make it a major producer of salted eggs in the state while the target is to penetrate markets outside Perak. – Bernama
