MPIC targets all hotels to use local pepper

KUCHING: The Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities (MPIC) targets all hotels in Malaysia to use local pepper.

Minister Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin said the Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) needed to ensure that pepper-based products were diversified to increase the revenue of pepper trade at the global level.

"In hotels, they have a set of pepper and salt, so if we can do that in our country, we can boost the selling of Sarawak pepper.

"At the moment, the product line of pepper is still limited to ground pepper and berries (peppercorns). MPB is responsible for making sure there is enough supply of pepper and looking at ways to diversify pepper products, for example pepper products for 'laksa Sarawak'," she said after relaunching SaraSpice Sdn Bhd here today.

Meanwhile, Zuraida said SaraSpice Sdn Bhd, a subsidiary of MPB, has the potential to increase the value of orders for its pepper products to RM30 million from June to the end of this year compared to RM13 million orders in the first six months of this year.

She added that the MPB would discuss and work with pepper farmers to set up a 'mini estate' model to increase pepper cultivation on a small scale.

"MPB will engage with smallholders to get their view before developing a model for 'mini estate'. Currently, the country's pepper plantation covers 7,700 hectares of land," she said.

-- BERNAMA