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Kota Kinabalu: The Sabah government wants to see more agricultural lands here developed for cocoa planting as the industry has lucrative potential to grow bigger.

Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor said cocoa is seen to have multi-use in various products, not only here, but also overseas.

“Until today, Sabah continues to be the main producer of the cocoa industry in the country... there are five districts actively planting cocoa, namely Ranau, Kota Marudu, Tenom, Kota Belud and Tambunan.

“But I’ve talked to the Malaysian Cocoa Board about the possibility, if there is a need for cocoa planters or companies to get more lands for cocoa planting; the state government will consider as we want this crop to be expanded,” he said.

He said this after launching the Sabah cocoa festival on Sunday (June 19), which commenced from Saturday (June 18) and will be held until Friday (June 24).

In his speech earlier, Hajiji said Sabah contributed 540 tonnes or 59% of the total cocoa beans produced in the country.

Planted lands for cocoa in Sabah covered 3,444ha or 57% of the country’s total 6,000ha planted area.

Malaysian Cocoa Board director-general Dr Ramle Kasin said the country’s exports of cocoa and chocolate products had increased progressively from RM4.2bil in 2010 to RM6.9bil last year.

“This is influenced by the higher chocolate consumption per capita in Asia Pacific nations, which increased from 0.15kg in 2010 to 0.2kg in 2021.

“The board will focus on production of premium cocoa beans of single origin and fine flavour.

“This is because the price for premium beans are between RM12 and RM15 per kilo, while cocoa beans in bulk are sold at RM7 to RM8 per kilo.