Sweet success as ex-chef’s gula apong goes global

All organic treat: The nipa palm (the tree’s fruit, left) can be found in the mangrove forests of Sarawak. The tree is tapped to yield a sap which is cooked for hours to produce gula apong.

PETALING JAYA: Eight years ago, Saiful Firdaus Sulaiman quit his job as a hotel chef and banked on selling gula apong – a little-known sweetener made by river communities in Sarawak – to the world.

After battling almost two years of pandemic lockdowns and grappling with inconsistent product quality, the 40-year-old’s resilience and passion caught the attention of a federal agency who stepped in to give his company the global spring board it needed.