KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — The government will examine aid and methods of transitioning traditional durian cultivation to high-value durians, which can be a new economic boom for the country.

Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said this matter will be detailed more deeply as it is a source of business, especially when ‘raw’ durians can now be exported to China.

"We need to look at the problem of increasing (farmers’) income...we will discuss it from the point of view of grants or easy loans and so on. We need to sit down (discuss) properly... Durians are not the same as rice, meat, fish, eggs or cooking oil which are necessities,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat today.

Mohamad said much will not be affected if there are no durians, however, it (durian) is a business, so we tackle it as a source of business, not an issue such as the issue of rice, eggs, fish and so on where the government provides many subsidies in terms of maintaining reasonable prices.

The minister said this in response to an additional question from Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (PN-Bukit Gantang, regarding the government's measures to help durian farmers and his proposal for the government to allocate RM20 million, during a question-and-answer session at the Dewan Rakyat today.

When answering an additional question from Sim Tze Tzin (PH-Bayan Baru) regarding the proposal to create durian tourism and establish a durian board, Mohamad said durian tourism does indeed exist.

"When tourists especially from China land in Penang, they go to Balik Pulau to eat durians... Like yesterday when I was in Bukit Bintang (here), I went to a big place that sells durians and, all who came there were mostly Chinese tourists because for them price is not a problem.”

Regarding setting up a durian board, he said this was a good suggestion and he will bring it up for discussion at the ministry level.

"The New York Times recently predicted that durians are a new economic crop for Malaysia after the (Malaysia) ministry signed (memorandum of understanding) with China's General Administration Department of Customs (GACC), so we will give serious attention to Bayan Baru's (Sim) suggestion regarding economic growth," he added. — Bernama