Ministry: 14,000 tonnes of durians exported last year

At the dewan rakyat
Reports by HEMANANTHANI SIVANANDAM, HANIS ZAINAL and TARRENCE TAN  

More than 14,000 metric tonnes of durians were exported last year, says the Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Ministry.

In a written reply, it said the du­rians were exported in the form of whole fruit, pulp and paste.

The export brought in RM70.68mil in revenue.

Among the main destinations are Singapore, Hong Kong, the United States and China.

Although it was just 6% out of the country’s total production value, its contribution was still significant, said the ministry.

The ministry was replying to a question by V. Sivakumar (DAP-Batu Gajah) on the amount of revenue the country made from durian exports in 2017 and what’s being done to control the price of the fruit locally.

The ministry said it conducted programmes under the 11th Malay­sia Plan to empower farmers by giving them lessons on planting and post-harvest management, and ex­­pan­ding durian crop project clusters through the Agriculture Depart­ment and the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority.

The price of durians is determined by factors such as demand, supply and the erratic global weather, said the ministry.

Last year, these factors led to the increase in prices, especially for premium ones such as the Musang King.

The ministry said that as more farmers choose to grow high-quality durian crops, the supply will increase and this will in turn stabilise local durian prices.

Meanwhile, the National Registra­tion Department received 42,510 citizenship applications from individuals aged 21 and below from 2013 to 2017.

“During the same period, 4,735 of individuals aged 21 and below were granted citizenship in accordance with the Federal Constitution,” said the Home Ministry in a written re­ply to William Leong (PKR-Selayang).

Leong had asked about the number of children who had applied for Malaysian citizenship.