Ancom Crop Care enters deal with China's Kewo to capture organic fertiliser market in Malaysia, Southeast Asia

SERDANG, Sept 13 — Malaysia’s leading agrochemical company Ancom Crop Care Sdn Bhd (ACC) and China’s Sichuan Kewo Agriculture Technology Co (Kewo) have today signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to venture into the fertiliser market in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, promoting sustainable farming.

The MoU exchange was made between ACC chief operating officer and executive director Anthony Tan and the general manager of Kewo’s parent company Sino Quick, Wen Yong Jian, at the 100th Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism Show (Maha 2024) here.

The exchange of documents, witnessed by Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup, marked ACC’s first venture into the fertiliser business in Malaysia and SEA region.

Citing the company’s global success in crop protection products, Tan said he is confident that the partnership with Kewo would enable ACC to penetrate the fertiliser market in Malaysia and the neighbouring countries.

“For the start, we will focus on Malaysia, Philippine and Indonesia before expanding to other countries,” Tan said.

Tan said the company aims to have at least five per cent of its turnover driven by fertiliser products. Last year, ACC ended its financial year with RM600 million in sales turnover.

Speaking about the partnership, Wen said the collaboration with ACC will enable Kewo to explore new markets in Malaysia and SEA region.

“We are happy to have ACC as our sales and distributor partner in this region,” said Wen.

Subsequently, ACC also inked a separate MoU with MadaCorp, a subsidiary of Muda Agricultural Development Authority (Mada), to collaborate in various areas including fertiliser supply and rolling out artificial intelligence (AI)-driven farming technologies to assist local farmers.

The MoU was exchanged between Tan and MadaCorp chairman Asmirul Anuar Aris in the presence of Kurup.

The partnership will see ACC providing smart farm monitoring solutions to farmers under the purview of MadaCorp.

“We have already invested over RM20 million in satellite imagery and AI solutions to enable farms to monitor corp health and identify plant diseases through a mobile application called Plantix.

“We will be providing the solution to MadaCorp for their farmers,” said Tan.

Asmirul lauded the initiative and said it is in line with Malaysia’s food security and sustainability goals.

“We will be introducing the technology to our 27 Area Farmers Organisation branches within Kedah and Perlis to benefit over 57,000 farmers,” he said.

Meanwhile, Kurup said collaborations through MoUs play a pivotal role in Malaysia’s agricultural competitiveness on the global stage by fostering partnerships between local and international companies.

“MoUs enable the exchange of expertise, sharing of technology and resources which would drive innovation and sustainable practices,” said Kurup.