Malaysia to Increase the MD2 Pineapple Production to 50%
MD2 to Drive Pineapple Growth
The Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board (MPIB) aims to increase the production of MD2 premium pineapples to 50% under the 12th Malaysia Plan (12MP) to meet the high demand in the local and foreign markets. In 2019 Malaysia produced 300,000 metric tons of pineapple, which was 7% less than the year before. Today’s pineapple plantation accounts for around 16,000 hectares, for which the MPIB plans to increase them to 20,000 hectares, mainly with the MD2 variety.
The long-term plan is for the MD2 variety to drive the growth of pineapple production in Malaysia, as this variety today only represents 16% of the whole pineapples produced. The board aims to promote pineapple cultivation by cooperating with various government and private agencies, large estates, and sizable private industry players. The goal is to promote MD2 production together with existing commodities such as palm oil and rubber, which is a crucial aspect of the strategy as land in Malaysia is limited.
Suzie Haryanti, Chief Agronomist Officer for Presica, an agronomist consultancy firm that advises pineapple growers to boost productivity in Malaysia has given us more detailed insights about the MPIB plan strategy. For her, the increase in production is mainly due to one strong reason, “MD2 pineapple is becoming one of the high-value crops in Malaysia because it is of higher quality and higher-yielding than other varieties,” she mentioned.
Source: Tridge
Promotions and Incentives to MD2 Planting
The MPIB will play an essential role in giving extension programs to pineapple growers to produce MD2 pineapple. However, for Ms. Haryanti, the key behind the program’s success will depend on government efforts. “In order for Malaysian growers to achieve the targeted 50% production, they must have high agronomic knowledge, attitudes, practices, and skills about pineapple farming,” explained Haryanti. Therefore, the essential role that the MPIB will take is to encourage all growers to start producing MD2 varieties along with their already existing crops through incentives, guidance, and support programs.
Incentives from the MPIB will go from providing fertilizers, farming tools, and infrastructure to providing technical guidance to growers. An important part will be encouraging all growers to have best practices certifications. “Growers will be encouraged to have MYGAP (Malaysian Good Agriculture Practice), a certification which the Department of Agriculture has developed to give acknowledgment to the plantations with good agricultural practices with the concept of environmentally friendly, workers safety and produce safe and quality to eat,” Ms. Haryanti explained.
Another important program is the Planting High-Value Pineapple program. This program is for smallholders with less than 40 or 100 hectares or few smallholders planting the pineapple together in one area for one or more of the pineapple varieties. The pineapple varieties must have high marketing value at local and international levels. This way, the MPIB will be able to give incentives throughout the high-value program to smallholders who decide to put together the planting areas.
Pineapple Export Expansion Expected
With the projected increase in production, the MPIB expects exports to continue to grow by 5% per year during the 12 Malaysian Plan period, which will go from 2021 to 2015. Malaysia exports pineapples to over 20 countries, with the five main countries being Singapore, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, China, and Japan. However, due to the recent Taiwanese pineapple ban in China, the primary targeted market would be to expand exports mainly into China.
Taiwan exports approximately 97% of its pineapple to China. However, the ban, which came into effect on March 1st, 2021, has affected key Chinese markets such as Guangdong and Hainan, resulting in price hikes. Prices in these markets rose by 14% during the first 12 weeks of 2021, reaching USD 1.07 per kg. However, the rise in prices is seen as a short effect of the ban, as China aims to purchase pineapples from geographically closer countries such as the Philippines, Thailand, and Malaysia.
In terms of the MD2 variety, MD2 pineapples are exported to more than 13 countries, including Oman, Iran, the UAE, Turkey, Singapore, and South Korea. Kuwait and China are the latest on the list of exporting countries. In the near future, there are discussions with various European countries to export the fruit for them. Haryanti added that “the increasing hectarage for MD2 variety is the main factor for Malaysia to elevate the number of fresh pineapple exports to the Gulf States such as Turkey, Iran, Egypt and Arab Saudi that showed an increasing demand trend.”
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