RM3.2bil in imported veggies and fruits eaten a year

At the Dewan Rakyat

MALAYSIANS consume almost RM3.2bil worth of imported vegetables and fruits a year although homegrown supplies are at a self-sufficient level.

“We imported RM884mil worth of tropical vegetables and fruits and RM2.34bil worth from countries with temperate climates,” said Deputy Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman.

This was the case despite the nation being at a safe and secure level where homegrown agriculture produce is concerned, he said.

“Although we continue to import vegetables and fruits, we are at 89.9% self-sufficient,” he noted.

Tajuddin acknowledged that the country was forced to import certain vegetables, such as large onions from China, dry chillies from India and sawi from Indonesia.

“These vegetables cannot be grown locally due to our soil condition and climate,” he explained in his answer to Datuk Norah Abd Rahman (BN-Tanjung Manis).

The Government, said Tajuddin, was looking at utilising some 120,000ha of idle land to further boost cultivation of local vegetables.

Meanwhile, Deputy Higher Education Minister Mary Yap in reply to M. Kulasegaran (DAP-Ipoh Barat), said an image of the electronic greeting for US President Barack Obama on the highway gantry last Friday, which went viral online, did not reflect a declining state of English in the country.

She said there were success stories in regards to the language, including when the Malaysian teams emerged as champions in one of the world’s most competitive tournaments, the Cambridge inter-varsity debating competition.

The electronic message was: “Welcome to the President of USA Barack Obama”.