Sabah has potential to be Musang King hub
Published on: Tuesday, February 25, 2020
By: Hayati Dzulkifli
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has high potential to become a hub for cultivating and exporting Musang King Durian which is in high demand in developed countries like China, United States of America (USA), Australia and Hong Kong, among others.
Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong said it is possible for Sabah to be the largest producer of this King of Fruits as the State has vast hilly lands that are fertile and suitable for cultivating the fruit.
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He said such huge potential must be tapped so as to increase economic revenues through exportation of the Musang King.
“Apart from other commodities like oil palm, rubber, cocoa and pineapple, among others, that are planted in Sabah and exported to other countries like China, Hong Kong and Singapore, Musang King is also in good demand in Brunei Darussalam, Australia and some places in America that have China towns like California and San Francisco.
“Due to the high demand for the Musang King globally, the price of the fruit has gone up since 2014. For instance, the selling price of Musang King in Malaysia has increased more than 200 per cent since 2014 but the price is even higher when marketed and exported to China.
“Hence, the Musang King become one of the tourism attractions in Sabah. In fact, it cannot be denied that many tourists especially from China who come to Sabah would look for the Musang King Durian and buy the Musang King-based food products in large quantities,” he said.
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Junz said this in his speech when launching Neways Century (M) Sdn Bhd new office at KK Times Square and its Open Day at Grand Plaza (The Walk), Riverson here on Sunday.
Agriculture and Food Industry Assistant Minister Dr Daud Yusof delivered Junz’s speech text in the event.
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The KL-based company has a vision to make Sabah as one of the largest Durian producer in Malaysia within 10 years’ time by opening up plantation of cultivating Musang King Durian and provide opportunities for people to invest in Musang King trees for a long-term investment.
In fact, Junz said the demand for Musang King within the country and outside is expected to continue rising.
He said it is found that cultivating and selling Musang King Durian has huge potentials that generate lucrative income and its demand is growing rapidly.
“In Sabah, there are many shops that are not only selling the Musang King but durian-based products like durian coffee, durian biscuits, durian chocolate and durian cakes, among others.
“Cultivating and selling Musang King is also a business which has created ample jobs in plantations and companies.
“However, currently, Malaysia is only able to meet one per cent of the export demand for Musang King Durian to China and this does not include products made from the fruit,” he said.
Therefore, Junz said there are 99 per cent of the demand that offers huge market for Sabah to penetrate, supply and export the Musang King to China.
Following this, he said this has become the main focus of Federal Agriculture and Agro-based Ministry together with Felda (Federal Land Development Authority) to promote and market Musang King, globally.
“Now there are several agricultural-based companies in Sabah that ventured into planting Musang King Durian in a large scale and one of them is Neways Century (M) Sdn Bhd which is also known as NWC Plantation.
“I was made to understand that the company has more than 400 Musang King trees that are ready to be harvested in three to four years cultivated on a 20-acre land in Kg Kelatuan, Papar.
“This is a positive progress which my Ministry will support and encourage Sabahans who have land to plant the Musang King and those who do not have lands can invest in the NWC plantation that offers a NWC business ownership programme on their planted Musang King trees,” Junz said.
Under the programme, he said anyone could own the Musang King trees with small business capital that opens business opportunities to become entrepreneurs and enjoy attractive income through selling of the Musang King Durian to be handled by NWC.
He commended and congratulated the company for successfully cultivating the Musang King in Papar and organising the entrepreneurship programme to benefit those interested in long-term investment and doing the agricultural businesses as well as further developing agriculture sector and boost the State’s economic growth.
Junz said he hoped the company would extend its Musang King plantation to other districts and be progressive in making Sabah as the hub and largest producer of Musang King to overseas.
Meanwhile, Neways Century (M) Sdn Bhd (NWC Plantation) director Hafizan Mokhtar said the company also called on anyone in Sabah who have lands including idle lands above five-acre to have a joint venture with them in cultivating Musang King Durian.
He said those who do not have land but are interested in generating additional and long-term income can also participate in the company’s business ownership program that allows the individual to invest by owning the company’s planted Musang King trees in its plantations in Sabah.
He said those wish to participate in the programme will also need to sign an agreement with the company that will look after their Musang King trees and manage the selling and exportation of the fruit to overseas.
Once the Musang King trees are harvested, Hafizan said the owners could enjoy lucrative profits and selling of their respective trees.
“One Musang King tree could produce between 200 and 500 fruits in a year and the investor or the owner could benefit a net income of about 4,500 and even more per year when it is exported that normally has higher pricing.
“At the moment, the company has planted over 400 Musang King trees on the 20-acre land in Kg Kelatuan, Papar under Phase 1.
“As for Phase 2, we target to plant Musang King seedlings/trees in about 100-acre land that we will identify later while Phase 3 would involve 500 to 100 acres of lands and we hope that more thousands of acres lands in Sabah would be planted with Musang King,” he said.
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