MIRI: Pineapple farming can be a sweet deal for farmers especially those residing in the rural area.
Speaking at the unveiling of new variety of pineapple known as Sarawak Gold 1 (SG1) or AC 16, Minister for Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom said apart from generating lucrative income for farmers, it has a huge downstream potential.
“The State government via my Ministry is planning to increase not only the upstream but downstream activities in the pineapple supply system including adopting R&D (especially in the downstream activities) available in West Malaysia, in order to improve the pineapple industry,” he said on Tuesday at TG Agro Fruits farm in Sungai Tukau.
TG Agro Fruits is the pioneer in planting the SG1/AC 16 pineapple here.
The new pineapple variety was officially registered on December 13 last year by the Department of Agriculture.
In 2019, pineapples of this variety began to be imported from Taiwan to Miri, with its crowns planted and used as plant material in the seed propagation plot in Kampung Riam Jaya and part of the farm area in Sungai Tukau.
Rundi is optimistic that Sarawak which is ranked number two as a pineapple producer after Johor, is capable of getting to the top spot.
Thus, he said, farmers should start to venture into pineapple farming instead of focusing on oil palm plantation.
“Sarawak has vast land for pineapple planting, just imagine panting 20,000 pineapples on one acre of land, it could generate an income up to RM6,000 per month,” he said.
Rundi added, that pineapples are also making their way into the textile production industry.
“Via innovations, we could make clothes from the pineapple leaf fibre or handbags for example , bringing benefits to the communities,” he explained.
His Ministry is also planning to introduce modern farming methods to encourage more younger people to work in the agriculture sector.
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 Entrepreneur Development II (Entrepreneur Developement) Dr Ripin Lamat, Deputy Minister for Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts I (Tourism) Datuk Sebastian Ting, Miri Division 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.
