KUALA LUMPUR: The national onion self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) is set to rise from 0.1% in 2024 to 30% by 2030 under the RM31.5mil Onion Industry Development Program, says the Agriculture and Food Security Ministry.
The Ministry said the long-term strategy includes developing cultivation technologies, producing planting manuals and breeding local onion varieties suited to conditions in Malaysia.
It said this will also involve the development of onion production technology such as the production of planting manuals and development of local varieties.
“Local varieties will include the three local onion varieties introduced by the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) in 2023 — BAW-1, BAW-2 and BAW-3 — that form part of a seed development programme running until 2030.
“The programme will see the development of permanent seed plots and entrepreneur seed plots at Mardi.
“This will contribute to the production of onion seeds in the form of bulbs and onion seeds in the form of seed grains that produce planting bulbs and botanical onion seeds,” the Ministry said in a parliamentary written reply dated Monday (July 13).
The Ministry said the commercial production phase begins in 2026 to 2030 with a target area of 1,447 hectares and an expected production output of 14,470 metric tons.
It also noted that RM4mil has been used to establish an additional 61.18 hectares of onion cultivation nationwide in 2026 so far to accelerate production of local onions.
“This strategy is expected to be able to produce local onion supply and achieve the SSR target of 30% by 2030,” it said.
The ministry also revealed that Malaysia's onion SSR stood at just 0.01% in 2024, based on domestic production of only 48.29 metric tonnes and 32.48 metric tonnes in 2025.
It said onion production remained limited due to the crop not being native to Malaysia, requiring further adaptation of technologies and agronomic practices to local conditions.
The Ministry was responding to Roslan Hashim (PN-Kulim Bandar Baharu), who sought an update on Malaysia's current onion SSR and future production targets.
