KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia will focus on becoming a producer of single-origin and premium quality cocoa beans to ensure the products comply with the Malaysian Standards and other international regulations and standards, including food safety.

Minister of Plantation Industries and Commodities Datuk Dr Mohd Khairuddin Aman Razali also said that the Malaysian Cocoa Board (MCB) is also developing cocoa beans traceability system to enhance product origin assurance further.

"In this regard, Malaysia has established a well-equipped analytical laboratory with ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation for chemical and microbiological analysis, supported by a team of panellists for cocoa liquor and chocolate sensory evaluation," he said in his speech at the Belgium-Malaysia Partners Towards a Regional Sustainable Chocolate Industry webinar held virtually today.

The ISO/IEC 17025 accreditation stands for the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), two organisations that work to develop, maintain, and promote standards in the fields of science and technology.

Mohd Khairuddin said with all these in place, the assurance of premium prices that commensurate with the production of higher quality beans would certainly motivate the cocoa farmers to sustain or expand cocoa cultivation.

"These approaches adopted for the development of the cocoa planting and processing industry in Malaysia will be premised on the concept of sustainable development.

"The strategies in the various national policies have been formulated with the emphasis on crop diversification, value-added agro-based industrialisation to maximise income and for optimum utilisation of resources," he added.

In 2020, the cocoa sector contributed RM6.23 billion to the country's export earnings, he said.

"However, the price unpredictability in the world commodity market and local scenario in recent years have led to the declining interest in cocoa cultivation locally, while the growth of the cocoa grinding industry was constrained by the lack of locally-produced cocoa beans.

"Competition for land use with other crops such as oil palm, escalating input costs, and pests and diseases problems are the major factors affecting the growth of the upstream cocoa industry," he said.

-- BERNAMA