JOHOR BARU July 6 — The Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (LPNM) said today it will introduce a new pineapple variety next month which can further increase the crop’s annual production to meet demand.

Its chairman Sheikh Umar Bagharib Ali said the final study and research of the new pineapple variety is being done and its name will be announced after completion.

"This new pineapple variety has the advantage that within nine months of planting it can be harvested compared to other varieties like MD2 which normally takes about 14 to 18 months to harvest.

"We now have 16 pineapple varieties. This is excluding the new variety and four others such as the popular MD2, ND36, Josapine and Morris variants that are exported,” he said to reporters.

Sheikh Umar announced this in a press conference after attending the 2030 Pineapple Industry Development Roadmap workshop at the Trove Hotel here.

Present at the event were LPNM director-general Mohd Khairulzamri M Salleh, deputy director-general (development) Linda Buang and deputy director-general (operations) Onn Abdul Shukur Tahiruddin.

Sheikh Umar said the board aims to export the country’s pineapple products amounting to RM1.3 billion this year, and is confident of surpassing last year’s figure of RM1.2 billion.

"This includes the export of fresh pineapple, canned, juice, ornamental and other related products.

"Among the countries that import our Malaysian pineapple products are the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Singapore, Egypt, China, Japan and Saudi Arabia,” he said, adding that he is confident that the target figure can be achieved based on the annual increase in pineapple exports after the Covid-19 pandemic.

In addition, Sheikh Umar said in order to develop the pineapple industry further, the government has allocated RM24 million this year which will be given to the target groups, namely pineapple growers and entrepreneurs nationwide.

He said Malaysia currently produces 400,000 to 600,000 metric tonnes of pineapples a year and of that figure, it is only able to supply about 0.25 per cent of the fruit’s export demand.

In 2021, the pineapple crop in Malaysia covers an area of 16,204 hectares with a production value of RM675.76 million.

Johor is the largest pineapple-growing state with a total area of 10,211 hectares, which makes up 63 per cent of the country’s total pineapple output.