MALAYSIA will now have to change its marketing strategy to sell its agriculture products in China.
The Federal Agriculture Marketing Agency (Fama) needs to gauge the types of goods that are highly demanded by the Chinese market first before going back to Malaysia to produce the adequate volume of the products for the market, says Agriculture and Agro-Based Ministry secretary-general Datuk Mohd Hashim Abdullah.
In the past, our farmers grew fruits and other fresh produces and we would look for ways to sell them in the overseas market. We cannot do that anymore.
Done deal: Fama director-general Ahmad Ishak (right) and China Agricultural Wholesale Markets Association president Ma Zengjun posing for photos after the signing ceremony in Beijing.
Now we have to come here and see what the Chinese people want. If they say they want pisang berangan (a type of banana), we will inform the farmers to plant pisang berangan, he said in a recent interview in Xi’an in Shaanxi province.
Since frozen durian from Malaysia was first exported to China late last year, the fruit has been well received by the Chinese. The fruits have reached major cities like Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou.
Demand for the King of Fruits of Malaysia has been on the rise but the Malaysian authorities and farmers were facing the problem of supplying enough durian for the Chinese market, Mohd Hashim said.
Last month, an importer alone asked for 18 containers of frozen durian for one whole month. But, do we have so much durian? he said.
He said his ministry would have to re-look into the production of the fruits and encourage the farmers to incorporate the latest agricultural technology such as tree cloning to boost production.
He said ministry officials would visit the orchards and fruit processing factories to ensure the operators comply with the good agriculture practice and standards.
Currently, the ministry has a database of the total coverage of durian orchards in Malaysia. Remote villagers are encouraged to collect durians from their villages and send them to the collection and distribution centres established by the ministry.
Fama and wholesalers will then buy the fruits from the centres and distribute and export them.
“I will ask for a meeting with all the durian exporters and help them set up a consortium which will then decide whether to raise or decrease the price of the durian. They will band together to look for the supply of durian to fulfil the orders from China,” said Mohd Hashim.
He revealed that the Malaysian government was in talks with the Chinese General Administration of Quality, Inspection and Quarantine to export more Malaysian fruits such as pineapple and jackfruit to China.
He led a delegation of Malaysian exporters to participate in the International Trade Forum for Cooperation Between East and West held in Xi’an from April 5-April 9.
The ministry finalised details of its maiden food and cultural festival to be held from May 11 until 20 at the busy Muslim Street in downtown Xi’an.
Later during the ministry officials’ visit to Beijing, Fama and the China Agricultural Wholesale Markets Association inked a memorandum of understanding on the distribution of products from each other countries.
Now that Malaysian agriculture products have shown great potential in China, Malaysian Ambassador to China Datuk Iskandar Sarudin said Malaysian exporters should ensure the highest quality of their products.
All parties must work closely to maintain the standard set by our authorities and by the Chinese authorities. Nowadays China is very concerned about rules and procedures and the quality of imported goods because the health of its people are at stake.
Foreign products especially food must comply with China’s standards. We do not want to come to a situation anymore where our product faces problems of compliance and eventually our government will have to intervene and solve this problem, he said.
The Malaysian swiftlet industry has been hit badly following a ban by the Chinese authorities on the bird’s nest products from Malaysia which contained high nitrite levels in contravention of China’s health standards last August.
After the intervention of prime ministers from both countries, China finally agreed to lift its ban on the bird’s nest imports if the nitrite levels are below 30ppm (parts per million). The health ministries of China and Malaysia are now working out the protocol for the implementation of the new standard.
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