Simple durian shows how it’s possible
Published on: Sunday, August 07, 2016
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Last month, I was invited to launch a new digital service, Mi-Trace.
Since 2011 Malaysia has been exporting frozen durians as premium products, especially D24 and Musang King, to China.
The unique taste of our Musang King durians has made them highly sought after in China.
The price of these durians has even fetched up to more than 10 times than in Malaysia!
A single Musang King can sell up to RM110 in China and the demand outstrips supply.
It is interesting to note that a decade ago due to an oversupply of durians in the market at low prices from other countries, the local durian industry was at its lowest point – most of our durian farmers had to opt out and venture into the oil palm industry instead.
During the launch at Mimos Bhd, an agency under the purview of Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation (Mosti), I was excited to see the integration of two big technology trends in Mi-Trace – the Internet of Things (IoT) and Big Data Analytics. It adds value to these premium durians by helping consumers validate the durians’ authenticity, boosting consumers’ trust.
I also witnessed the exchange of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on the adoption of MyTrace by local durian exporters to China. There are six processing hubs in the country.
Mi-Trace is a technology platform developed by Mimos, and a result of strategic collaboration efforts between Mimos, Department of Agriculture and Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority in accordance with the National Blue Ocean Strategy (NBOS) adopted by our government.
Mimos also worked with the National Institutes of Biotechnology Malaysia, another Mosti agency, which developed a DNA marker that would help validate the authenticity of durians.
In conjunction with Malaysia Commercialisation Year 2016, a joint collaboration between Mosti and the Ministry of Finance, I laud the successful commercialization of Mi-Trace by MyTraceability Sdn Bhd. We hope that this success would be emulated, enabling R&D products to compete with international markets and be commercially viable.
This is how Mi-Trace works – before you make a purchase of these durian products, you scan the QR code on the packaging box with your smartphone. The system allows the consumers to check the authenticity, place of origin, packaging date and logistics information, using IoT to do real-time tracking, and we can even trace the tree of origin for each durian product.
This process conveniently self-regulates the market by overcoming any attempts by other countries to counterfeit our Malaysian durian export.
Simultaneously, when consumers scan this barcode with their smartphones, the system collects information of their location, browser and phone type. This would allow for the digital service providers to monitor the shipments, market hotspots and consumption trend.
Local durian exports would then be more equipped with information about the logistical process and the market, enabling them to enhance their efficiency and profitability by customising their service. Subsequently the multifaceted information captured by the system would reshape the business process as business-customer relationship would be improved.
With consumers becoming increasingly concerned about the origins and supply chain of a product, traceability systems are an effective marketing tool for virtuous business practices of companies. Combined with social media, traceability provides a very effective marketing tool especially for premium products; hence, a new form of digital marketing that tells the ”story” behind the product could help establish sustainable brand loyalty.
Consumers would share the story of their purchase, leading to repeat sales and recommendations to the peers, as observed in the cases of the Beluga Caviar and the Korean Ginseng.
As a result of the implementation of Mi-Trace, by the end of 2016, the export value is expected to increase by 30pc.
Consumers appreciate the convenience of validating the products’ authenticity with their phones, a simple measure to resolve the issue of product trust.
I am confident with the greater utilisation of Mi-Trace for a wider spectrum of industries.
The application of Mi-Trace potentially expands to other premium agricultural produces or food products.
It can be used in the tracking and tracing of Halal, Sustainable compliance or Pharmaceutical products.
The same concept of Mi-Trace can be further extended in, just to name a few - Inventory or Asset Tracking and Management System and Document Tracking System to be applied by other domain industries.
I would like to congratulate Malaysia for its durians withstanding stiff competition in the Chinese market.
This is a significant step for my Ministry, Mosti, in supporting the agricultural sector with innovative solutions by IoT and Big Data Analytics technologies in line with the New Economy, where premium fruits and vegetables sub-sectors are predicted to generate a total of RM1.571 billion GNI and create 9 075 new jobs by year 2020.
This initiative would boost farmers’ income, attract new generation of agro-prenueur, increase our agricultural exports and consequently strengthening the global footprint of Malaysian premium agro-food products.
Besides adding value to the premium durians, it also empowers our local farmers by enabling them to export quality, premium and reliable products.
This is also a brilliant example of “STI for Policy”, as the government is putting greater emphasis to transform the agricultural sector, investing in “smart villages” and smart-farming technology.
I strongly believe that STI is the way for us to think out-of-the-box.
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