KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The government will examine aid and methods of transitioning traditional durian cultivation to high-value durians, which can be a new economic boom for Malaysia.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said this matter will be detailed more deeply as it is a source of business, especially when ‘raw’ durians can now be exported to China.
“We need to look at the problem of increasing (farmers’) income…we will discuss it from the point of view of grants or easy loans and so on. We need to sit down (and discuss) properly… Durians are not the same as rice, meat, fish, eggs, or cooking oil, which are necessities.
“Much will not be affected if there are no durians; however, it (durian) is a business, so we tackle it as a source of business, not an issue like the issue of rice, eggs, fish and so on where the government provides many subsidies in terms of maintaining reasonable prices,” he said during a question-and-answer in the Dewan Rakyat today.
Mohamad was responding to an additional question from Bukit Gantang MP Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal on the government’s measures to help durian farmers and his proposal for the government to allocate RM20 million.
When answering an additional question from Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin regarding the proposal to create durian tourism and establish a durian board, the minister said durian tourism does indeed exist.
“When tourists, especially from China, land in Penang, they go to Balik Pulau to eat durians… Like yesterday when I was in Bukit Bintang (here), I went to a big place that sells durians, and all who came there were mostly Chinese tourists because, for them, price is not a problem,” he said.
Mohamad added that setting up a durian board was a good suggestion and would be discussed at the ministry level.
“The New York Times recently predicted that durians are a new economic crop for Malaysia after the (Malaysia) ministry signed (memorandum of understanding) with China’s General Administration Department of Customs, so we will give serious attention to Bayan Baru’s (Sim) suggestion regarding economic growth,” he said.
— Bernama
