IPOH, April 1 — The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) has prepared the Perak Rural Transformation Centre (RTC) Development Planning Plan 2021-2025 to boost economic activities at the RTC Gopeng besides giving a positive impact on the participants and entrepreneurs involved.

Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Seri Ronald Kiandee said among those who received attention were for the development of sites for food trucks, fresh fruit stalls, floriculture sales centres in the RTC rest and service (R&R) area which provides comfort to and attracts more entrepreneurs and visitors to the RTC to help in the continuity of the supply chain and to guarantee national food security can be achieved.

"The RTC Perak was established to improve the socio-economy of the locals where various high value-added activities have been implemented with the aim of increasing their income.

"Two important components highlighted at the RTC Perak are services and economic activities through the three main concepts of the establishment, namely government and private services, business hubs and facilities, as well as youth activity centres.

"The RTC Perak is also a collection and distribution centre for the food bank programme which has the cooperation of external parties that operate it,” he said during a working visit to RTC Perak in Gopeng, here, today.

The purpose of the visit was for him to see firsthand the incentives under the National Economic Recovery Plan (PENJANA) which are channelled to ensure the country’s food security and to revitalise the country’s agro-food sector from the economic situation due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Apart from that, Ronald said RTC Perak was also a distribution centre for dairy companies such as Farm Fresh with a sales value of RM600,000 per month recorded involving 100 dairy product entrepreneurs.

According to him, RTC Perak also got the attention of Gopeng Berhad, a bumiputera company involved in handling plantation projects, especially MD2 pineapple cultivation, where RTC Perak is used as the MD2 Pineapple Collection, Distribution and Export Centre.

"The company has also produced its own brand, Gopeng Premium Pineapple (Gopine) and to date, the total production is estimated at 200,000 kilograms with a sales value of RM500,000 and marketed to local and export markets,” he said.

Earlier, in a separate visit session, Ronald visited the Tapah Dairy Industry Service Centre (PPIT) to review the progress of the infrastructure and building upgrading project at the PPIT to obtain Good Veterinary Hygiene Practice (GVHP) certification.

Ronald said the GVHP certification would ensure the quality and safety of the milk supplied in accordance with Good Manufacturing Practice standards thus further expanding the product market which would be able to increase the income of the dairy farmers involved.

PPIT Tapah is the second PPIT in the country to be upgraded for GVHP certification after PPIT Merlimau. PPIT Tapah was developed in 1996 and operated in 1997 on an area of ​​1.2 hectares.

He said it was in line with the ministry’s efforts to enable PPIT Tapah to provide processing space to help farmers and cooperatives involved in downstream activities by producing milk-based, value-added products such as flavoured milk, yoghurt, ice cream and others.

"This PPIT serves to assist the farmers and cooperatives involved as a place for the collection and storage of fresh milk before it is sent to the milk processing plant.

"Currently, the centre houses a total of 28 dairy cattle farmers. The total amount of fresh milk produced by farmers around PPIT in 2020 was 542,987 litres,” he added. — Bernama