KOTA KINABALU: Sabah is expected to export some 35 tonnes of highland vegetables to markets in Kuala Lumpur with smoother transportation of goods out of the Kundasang district.
State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong said Monday (April 13) that they were working with the state Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) office to facilitate the buying and exporting of the vegetables.
“I was at Kundasang together with state Fama director Ribin Wahid to understand issues on the ground and find out the logistics problems of the farmers, ” he said.
"The overall process of transporting vegetables and produce out of Kundasang was smooth."
Wong said that some 35,000kg of cabbage from Kundasang, three tonnes of pomelos and one tonne of watermelons from Tawau will be exported to Kuala Lumpur markets.
Wong expected that by next week, they will be buying coconuts and bananas as efforts were now underway to help farmers.
“More cooperation is expected between my ministry and various stakeholders to enhance the process, ” he said, adding that the extension of the movement control order (MCO) would affect the farmers as well as vegetable distributors.
He said state Agriculture Department and state-owned Korporasi Pembangunan Desa (KPD) as well as Fama are among the agencies his ministry expected to work with closely to help domestic producers reach export markets such as Brunei, Sarawak and peninsular Malaysia.
"We are going all out for the food supply chain to sustain through the current MCO, ” he added.
Source : https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2020/04/13/sabah-vegetables-for-kuala-lumpur-market-soon-says-state-agriculture-minister#cxrecs_s