High-quality kampung durians to be rebranded as organic

Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the move was to help raise the income of rural folk through the sale of high-quality local fruits, besides stabilising their market price when there was a fruit glut during certain seasons.

"We will be issuing the Malaysia Organic Certificate for kampung durians. Many among the world's population prefer to eat organic food like organic rice and vegetables," he said after officiating at the Malaysia Agriculture Department's Agro Food Transformation programme at Padang Bandaran Jelai, Kampung Jelai, here, today.

The minister said the certificate would be issued by the Agriculture Department after various tests such as soil test, fruit test and water source test had been conducted.

He said for a start, organic durians would be marketed through the Malaysian AgroBazaar in Singapore in the middle of next year in view of May-June being the fruit season in Malaysia.

On another development, Ismail Sabri said local agro-based products were increasingly in demand in the world markets, hence the entrepreneurs must be able to meet the demand.

For instance, he said, Malaysia was negotiating with China to export fresh durians to that country as currently it only accepted frozen durians.

Ismail Sabri also said that rural producers of agriculture products needed to create new things, besides placing importance on modern packaging and being willing to consistently meet the demand for such products.

He said they should capitalise on the expanding world markets, especially through more agrobazaars to be set up such as in Dubai and Hong Kong.