Nowhere to go: Discarded vegetables lying by a roadside in Cameron Highlands. — Photo courtesy of China Press
GEORGE TOWN: Farmers have been forced to discard tonnes of vegetables due to an oversupply in the market and a decline in demand over the past few months.
Despite good weather and harvests, farmers claimed that an oversupply of imported vegetables contributed to the low demand in the market.
According to vegetable supplier Louis Law from Cameron Highlands, green vegetables accounted for nearly 90% of the vegetables discarded.
“We had to throw away green lettuce, mustard greens, and siew pak choy,” he added.
Law said demand for vegetables during Ramadan would usually be low as consumers eat fewer vegetables.
Competition from imported vegetables also made it more challenging for locally-produced greens, he added.
“Vegetables from countries like China, Thailand, and Vietnam are imported without control, thus creating a surplus of local vegetables,” he said.
Law urged the government to take action to prevent further wastage of locally-grown vegetables by implementing stricter regulations on imported vegetables to protect the local farmers.
“There should be better import controls and monitoring to prevent excessive foreign vegetables from flooding the local market,” he said.
Another farmer, Mohd Shahid Sapian, 25, from Padang Terap, Kedah, said he recently had to destroy about two tonnes of cucumbers due to oversupply.
“The price of cucumber also suddenly dropped from RM1 per kg to as low as 40sen,” he said.
He suggested that the authorities purchase surplus produce to help offset the waste of locally- grown vegetables.
“Maybe the ministry can buy our crops and donate them to boarding schools or hospitals,” he said.
Mohd Shahid, who lives in Kampung Masjid Lama Naka, said besides cucumbers, he also planted chillies, eggplants, and okra.
Federation of Vegetable Farmers Associations president Lim Ser Kwee said that up to 10 tonnes of vegetables had been discarded daily in the past few months due to a decline in demand.
“The current weather conditions are also favourable, leading to a higher yield than before.
“Previously, an acre of land could produce around three tonnes of vegetables, but now the output has doubled,” he said.
Lim said the association plans to meet with the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry and discuss how they could work together to overcome this issue.
“The government needs to address the challenges faced by farmers now.
“If no action is taken, one day, nobody would want to grow vegetables any more due to financial losses,” he said.
