Pineapples in demand overseas

Sweet fruit: Ismail Sabri looking at the plants in a pineapple farm at Kulim Malaysia Berhad Estate in Ulu Tiram.

ULU TIRAM: Youths are encouraged to go into pineapple farming as demand for fresh pineapples is good especially in overseas markets.

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said that the ministry was willing to assist them including getting loans from Agrobank if they showed strong interest.

“Pineapple farming is lucrative, a smallholder owning a four hectare pineapple farm can earn up to RM5,000 monthly,” he said during his working visit to Kulim (M) Bhd’s MD2 pineapple plantation in Ulu Tiram Estate here.

Ismail Sabri also witnessed the first shipment of MD2 fresh pineapples under a brand name of “Melita” in a 40-footer container to South Korea from the plantation.

Kulim had in early 2008 planted the MD2 species through its units – JTP Trading Sdn Bhd, Renown Value Sdn Bhd and Kulim Pineapple Farm and now has 303.5ha of MD2 pineapple plantations in Kluang and Kota Tinggi, Johor.

“Demand for fresh pineapples in the overseas market is good and we want more smallholders to focus on planting the MD2 pineapple,” said Ismail Sabri.

He said the species was suitable for export markets as it was able to withstand long sea journey adding that fresh pineapple commanded good prices in Middle East, Japan, South Korea and Europe.

Ismail Sabri said there was a need to set up a seed bank or a nursery dedicated to the cultivation of the MD2 suckers or slips (little plantlets taken off a mature pineapple plant).

“Right now, we are still importing the suckers from the Philippines and we have to reduce our dependency on the country and also save of foreign exchange,” he added.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) director-general Sahdan Salim said that currently there were 809.8ha areas planted with the MD2 pineapple mostly in Johor.

He said in order to cope with the demand of the fresh MD2 in the export markets in years to come, the acreage had to be increased to 2,023ha by 2020.

“We hope the state governments could allocate more state-owned lands for the MD2 cultivation,” said Sahdan adding MPIB would assist small holders and big companies in the technical aspects of planting the species.