KUCHING, June 19 — The federal government will help Sarawak if the state requires more land for cocoa plantation projects, said Datuk Seri Fadillah Yusof.

The deputy prime minister said although Sarawak was only allocated 10 hectares of land this year, the support and assistance for cocoa growers is not limited in terms of land.

“As far as I’m concerned, we will cooperate with the Sarawak government if there is an effort to increase the area of new cocoa plantations in the state.

“(And) of course, we, the ministry will provide support and assistance to them,” said Fadillah, who is also minister of plantation and commodities, when asked on Malaysian Cocoa Board’s (LKM) recent allocation for cocoa cultivation.

He was met after officiating at the Agricommodity Energy Use Information and Dialogue Session here today.

On June 11, LKM said it had allocated 110 hectares of land in Sabah, 80 hectares in the peninsula, and 10 hectares in Sarawak for cocoa cultivation.

While he was aware of the issues and challenges affecting cocoa growers’ income, Fadillah said the ministry was also concerned about the compounded effect on the cocoa cultivation industry.

According to him, cocoa growers are switching to planting different crops due to the non-competitive price of cocoa in the market.

“For example, the comparison between palm oil and Musang King durian, where some people switch to Musang King cultivation because the market is bigger and the labour cost is lower compared to palm oil (cultivation),” he added.

Another compounded factor, Fadillah said, was the low participation among players in the private sector.

He said though LKM has initiated research in the production of high quality cocoa beans, participation among grinders or interested parties involved in research and development activities remains to be seen.

“In this context, the value chain needs to be considered comprehensively, such as if we want to encourage cocoa cultivation, agro-economists and seed experts should be equally involved.

“Although we have the Malaysian Cocoa Board (LKM), the question is whether or not there is interest from interested parties and so on in this industry,” he said.

Currently, the country’s total cocoa plantation area stands at 5,985 hectares, of which 3,444 hectares are in Sabah, 1,454 hectares in Sarawak, and 1,087 hectares in the peninsula. — Borneo Post