Datu Sirai Daha
SARIKEI: The Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development (M-FICORD) is focusing on four main food crops for Sarawak to achieve its goal of becoming a 'net food exporter' by 2030.
M-FICORD Permanent Secretary, Datu Sirai Daha announced the ministry plans to reach 20,000 hectares of coconut plantations by 2030. Currently, Sarawak only has around nine thousand hectares for these crops.
"The planting of durian, pineapple and banana is also targeted to reach a total area of 20,000 hectares by 2030.
"For pineapple, we already have a factory in Sibu and in Miri which is under construction," he said.
For bananas, he said, the demand from Peninsular Malaysia is very high, at 20 tonnes per week and the banana identified as having the highest demand is the nipah banana.
He said this when speaking at a dinner organised by the Sarikei Dayak Development Association (GPDS) last night.
