KUALA LUMPUR, March 16 — Malaysia’s durian industry does not need the government to step in at this point of time through the formation of a Malaysian Durian Board, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security has said.
The ministry also highlighted that any future plans to set up such a board should ensure that it does not end up hampering the durian industry’s growth.
“At the moment, based on the production and export value obtained, the ministry believes the durian industry can stand on its own without government intervention to the extent of requiring the establishing of a board to regulate the durian industry.
“But if there is a need in the future, the proposal to set up a Malaysian Durian Board has to be studied and looked at from all aspects, so that the its formation does not disrupt the durian industry — which is growing fast — due to bureaucracy and overlap in functions that may arise due to the creation of that board,” it said in a written parliamentary reply yesterday.
The ministry was replying to a question by Chow Yu Hui, who is the MP for Raub in Pahang, a parliamentary constituency famed for its production of the prized Musang King durian variety.
Chow had asked if the ministry was prepared to set up a Malaysian Durian Board to develop and modernise the durian industry in aspects such as production, exports, processing, manufacturing and marketing of durians and durian products.
Earlier, in the same reply to Chow, the ministry said durians is one of the local fruits with high demand both in the local market and for export purposes.
The ministry noted that Malaysia had produced 302,646 tonnes of durians in 2016 and that this had increased to 459,747 tonnes in 2022, with the export value of durians also growing by 107 per cent or by RM74.8 million in five years’ time.
The ministry said key importers of Malaysia’s durians are Hong Kong, China, Singapore, the United States and Australia.
The ministry said the positive development in the planting of durians was not only encouraged by the government through the ministry, but has also been industry driven with multiple durian-based downstream products industries also growing.
Malaysia has multiple boards for the development of various industries or sectors, such as the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board which comes under the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security.
The Ministry of Plantation and Commodities also oversees a number of boards for the development of key commodities such as palm oil, rubber, timber, cocoa and pepper.
