KANGAR, Dec 13 — The Perlis State Legislative Assembly was today told that the state government intends to produce its own brand of rice.

State Agriculture, Plantation and Food Industries Committee chairman Razali Saad said the state government took the initiative to produce local rice products and had already called relevant agencies such as the Muda Agriculture Development Authority (Mada) and Padiberas Nasional Berhad (Bernas) for the planning.

"Nevertheless, several aspects need to be looked into to ensure the implementation will not be delayed,” he said in response to a question from Haziq Asyraf Dun (PN-Beseri) who wanted to know the state government’s efforts to produce local imported rice products that will be the property of the Perlis state government.

In the meantime, when met by reporters at the Perlis State Legislative Assembly Complex here, Razali said his team was optimistic and confident that plans to produce local rice that belongs to the state could be realised in another three to four months following this year’s second season of rice harvesting.

"We have given the mandate to Bernas to buy this rice and we will take it from Bernas to make it Perlis rice...we depend on Bernas because many of these farmers’ choices are private (rice) factories, so there are constraints here.

"In Perlis, many of the private factories have their parent companies in Kedah, so most of the paddy is taken back from Perlis to Kedah (to be processed into rice). We also have discussions with the Padi and Rice Regulator about finding a solution to this problem,” he said.

Razali also said Mada is prepared to support the sale of rice from farmers from areas under the agricultural development board (Mada) to Bernas for the state government to produce its local rice products.

He added that currently, the process of designing the brand packaging for the Perlis rice is underway. — Bernama