Sabah unable to meet the rising cocoa demand
Published on: Friday, August 30, 2019
By: Johan Aziz
KENINGAU: Assistant Minister of Rural Development, Rasinin Koutis, said the Malaysian cocoa industry is facing a shortage of cocoa production while demand for cocoa beans from local mills is increasing.
He said this state of imbalance has been detrimental to the development of the cocoa industry at the downstream level.
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“Last year, Malaysia only produced about 814 tonnes of cocoa beans compared to 345,488 tonnes needed annually by local cocoa mills,” he said when addressing the Malaysian Cocoa Board’s Friendly Meeting with the cocoa farmers on Thursday.
He said this meant that Malaysia needed to import 344,674 tonnes of cocoa beans from other producing countries, especially Indonesia, Ivory Coast and Ghana.
According to him, cocoa was the first commodity cultivated in Malaysia in the 1770s or 249 years ago. Since then, cocoa cultivation has grown rapidly and has contributed significantly to the economic development of the country.
He said in 1989, the total area of cocoa cultivation in Malaysia was 415,000 hectares with a total production of 247,000 tonnes. Malaysia was then one of the largest cocoa-producing countries in the world.
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However, cultivation began to decline in 2000 following competition for land use with other commodity crops, especially oil palm.
“In 2011, cocoa crop area was recorded on 20,543 hectares with an estimated 5,000 tonnes of production, which declined nearly 70pc from 16,000 tonnes in 2010 due to climate change and the addition of new areas of early and immature cocoa plant to produce yields,” he said.
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Rasinin, who is also Liawan Assemblyman, said the government is always focused on developing the agriculture sector such as the cocoa commodity sector to increase its contribution to the country’s economic growth.
He said policies, strategies and programmes were formulated and implemented with the aim of enhancing the development of the cocoa industry as a catalyst for the oil and rubber industry to move together to drive socio-economic development and improve the living standards of the rural population especially smallholders.
He urged farmers not to hesitate to study and keep up-to-date on modern agricultural practices through the development of new technologies and techniques to improve crop production.
In Rasinin’s view, this is the best time for farmers to re-grow cocoa as demand for its beans is higher than production.
Based on economic principles, he said this situation would certainly lead to increased price of cocoa beans in the market and thus provide a lucrative income for cocoa farmers.
He hoped the locals would take advantage of the industry as it is also able to compete with local crops such as oil palm, rubber and other crops that were economically viable even though they were in rural areas and at the same time contributing to the country’s economy.
At the event, three cocoa farmers consisting Eson @ Sision Lupan, Stephen Angkim and Francis Laudi received the Cocoa Farmers Award on their high yields. The awards were presented by Rasinin.
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The event was also graced with a ceremony to cut the cake on the Third Anniversary of the Cocoa Crop Movement (Gertak) under the Sabah Interior Development Foundation (YPPS).
Also present at the event were Deputy Director-General of Malaysian Cocoa Board, Dr Ramle Kasin, Datin Zubaidah Haji Rusnin representing YPPS, Chairperson of Jaws and Claws Chocolate, Josepine Lu, Organising Chairman Rustam Bakka, LKM unit heads and Gertak members.