Malaysian pineapples enter China market

Salahuddin with representatives from five Malaysian pineapple exporters including Naza Plantation Services Sdn Bhd at the Malaysian Pineapple Business to Business Promotion.

THE agro business arm of Naza Group of Companies, Naza Agro, participated in the inaugural Malaysian Pineapple Business to Business (B2B) Promotion initiative held at Walmart Beijing, as part of a delegation initiated by the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB).

The delegation, led by Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Salahuddin Ayub, aims to introduce Malaysia-produced pineapples and its unique traits to the Chinese consumer market.

The event provided an insight into the Malaysian pineapples through suppliers such as Naza Agro through its trademark brand Tropicale, and also marked the first batch of Malaysian pineapples to arrive in Walmart Hypermarket in Beijing.

In the long run, it is also hoped that the initiative will foster a dynamic business relationship between Malaysia and China.

In the near future, Naza Agro’s long-term vision is to establish strong presence in the China market and continue to explore other export markets such as Japan, South Korea and the Middle East for its tropical fruits business.

Plans are also in the pipeline to expand the company’s tropical fruits plantation land bank by another 809.3ha which includes planting of pineapple, melon and durian for export market within five years’ time.

Naza Agro was established in 2014 and is involved in the production of tropical fruits using high technology agro systems with cutting-edge biotechnology, green house fertigation system, biofertilisers and commercial farming methods.

Currently, it owns and manages 921.4ha of sprawling plantations in Pahang, Perak, Perlis and Negri Sembilan, producing premium MD2 pineapples under the Tropicale brand for local distribution and export.

Pineapples sourced from Malaysia are known for their natural sweet taste and aroma, juiciness and crunchy texture with high fibre content.

Malaysia’s tropical weather creates ideal conditions for pineapple plantations to thrive, and as such, consumers get year-round supply of fresh, juicy pineapples such as Tropicale’s premium MD2 pineapples.

Malaysian pineapples made a breakthrough in 2017 when they were first exported to China.

To-date, a total of 202 tonnes of Malaysian fresh pineapples valued at RM1.5mil have been successfully exported to China.

This, together with the growing demand in China for Malaysian pineapples, signify a massive export potential for Malaysian pineapple suppliers whereby Malaysia targets RM320mil in export value with the total output of 700,000 tonnes of pineapples by 2020.