Sabah farmers to challenge Sarawak's reign as top pepper producers

KOTA KINABALU: The King of spice - pepper - has always been associated with Sarawak with the state cultivating almost 98% of this crop in Malaysia.

However, farmers from neighbouring Sabah have also started venturing into farming peppers and recently even managed to penetrate the local market.

One of the first people to make this happen, Dennison R. Indang, 42, owner of Amaris pepper products said the opportunity to go big for a local inexperienced farmer like himself was somewhat "accidental".

“I am a contractor by profession but this is quite a heavy job and I wanted to find something to fall back into during my retirement years, ” he said when met here, Tuesday (March 3).

He said he had liked the idea of farming since young, so he decided to get into agriculture in 2009 where he faced failures cultivating other crops until he started growing pepper at his father’s six-acre piece of land in Ranau in 2012.

“When I was still a kid, I used to plant vegetables around our house so I thought since I love planting, why not earn money with it, ” Indang said.

The father of four said prior to his first yield in 2016, he, together with a group of pepper farmers, started an association that aims to gather pepper farmers and those with knowledge in this field to act as a support system for members.

Dennison Indang and some of the pepper products.

“We also work closely with the Malaysian Pepper Board and other government agencies to provide feedback and suggestions on improving policies and delivery systems to our members, ” he said.

He said the association also aims at helping pepper farmers and members to market their products on a larger platform.

Indang said when they started having talks and workshops on pepper farming, he learnt that many existing farmers did not know where to sell their produce.

“So after much discussion, we decided to buy their products and go downstream, ” he said.

He said the move indirectly forced him to go to supermarkets and hypermarkets, a move which was not easy as many were hesitant towards the new and "unknown" pepper brand.

Indang said though this deviated from his original plan, it has given him satisfaction to be able to contribute back to the community on a much larger scale.

“It has given my members and I the opportunity to help other farmers to not only sell their products but gain more knowledge and skills on how to add value, diversify and expand their business, ” he said.

He feels that there is still much that the government can do to help farmers on not only agriculture and planting crops, but also on nurturing and developing local entrepreneurs to venture into value-added downstream activities to help complete the supply chain.

Indang said Sabah’s pepper industry is relatively new but it has huge potential to be developed further if only locals understand its value and are willing to take chances with assistance from the government.