Boost for Sabah’s coffee sector
Published on: Monday, October 03, 2022
By: Anthea Peter
Dr Joachim (fifth left), Richard (fifth right) and Noorliza (fourth right) at the 2022 Sabah International Coffee Festival.
Kota Kinabalu: The 2022 Sabah International Coffee Festival (SICF) launched last Friday is a stepping stone to further elevate Sabah’s coffee industry and contribute to the State’s economy.Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Dr Joachim Gunsalam said the initiative would encourage more people to venture into planting coffee.
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“Sabah does not produce enough coffee. It is hoped that this festival can improve the upstream (coffee sector), so that coffee brewers in Sabah know they can produce coffee (and have a market for it).
“We do not look at this only from the entrepreneurs’ point of view, rather we also want to promote coffee growers in Sabah, so that they have an avenue to sell their coffee produce,” the State Industrial Development Minister said after officiating the festival at Suria Sabah Shopping Mall, recently.
The week-long SICF, formerly dubbed the “Borneo Coffee Festival”, is divided into two zones – one being a three-day coffee-specific expo on the ground floor which will see a Latte Art and Brewers Cup competition participated by local and international baristas.
The other is a week-long entrepreneurial carnival on the eighth floor featuring local products by 47 Sabah entrepreneurs as well as seminars and talks by various agencies and companies such as the Sabah Economic Development and Investment Authority (Sedia) and Shopee.
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The carnival began last Monday and run until Oct 2, while the expo started on Friday and run until Sunday.
Dr Joachim commended the SICF committee for holding a carnival zone for entrepreneurs to offer information on training, funding facilities and marketing in addition to the coffee-specific expo zone.
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He said small and medium Sabah entrepreneurs can easily market their products in the peninsula with the opening of the Small and Medium Industry Product Centres (IKS) under the Industrial Development Ministry (MID) in Kuala Lumpur.
He encouraged Sabahan entrepreneurs to make full use of the facilities as a springboard for promoting and selling their product or through physical and interaction or through e-commerce.
“This includes everyone from coffee planter to coffee vendor who should also enjoy economic prosperity through the coffee business,” he said.
He hoped the participating entrepreneurs would benefit from the carnival in terms of sales, exposure and knowledge gained from Sedia, Shopee and various agencies that held talks and trainings during the event.
SICF Organising Committee Chairman Richard Lim said both the expo and carnival involves a total participation of nearly 100 local and overseas exhibitors from the industry as well as the food and beverage sector.
“We hope this will serve as a first step after the Covid-19 outbreak to put Sabah on a global map and be the place to visit,” he said.
Mayor Datuk Noorliza Awang Alip said the SICF is part of City Hall’s (DBKK) Love KK Network Initiative under the “Vibrant KK” component to display the vibrancy of the city.
“DBKK is actively playing a part by encouraging collaborative partnerships addressing economic activities, as the city’s vibrant economy will create, open up and lead to more business and entrepreneur opportunities, which will create job opportunities for the people,” she said.
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