When I was young and growing up in Sibu, dabai, often called ‘Sarawak olive’ or ‘Borneo olive’ was part of my diet.
Dabai, known as ‘Canarium odontophyllum’ botanically, is a unique, seasonal tropical fruit from Borneo. It has a dark skin, cream yellow flesh and nutty flavour.
Whenever the fruits were in season, my mother would buy them and then soak them in warm water to soften. We would eat them with salt or soy sauce as part of our meals.
Native to Borneo, the dabai were and still are especially abundant in the Sibu and Kapit Divisions of Sarawak.
It is hard to find dabai in Kuching. If they are on sale in the city, they usually cost a bomb.
For the past one month, I came across dabai twice in the city. Each time, I could not resist buying them.
I bought my first batch of dabai — RM20 for half kilogramme — from a man who was selling them at the food court in Tabuan Laru.
I asked him where did the fruits come from. “Kuching,” he replied.
Although some of the fruits were already shrivelled, I decided to buy some to satisfy my yearning.
“If you don’t buy now, you probably cannot find them again,” I told myself.
When I soaked the fruits in warm water to soften them, some could not be eaten because they were very hard. Their cream yellow flesh had turned black.
A week later , I was having lunch at a food court in Stutong when a young man sold half kilogram of dabai for RM25. He was carrying several plastic bags of the fruits and going from table to table.
I stopped him and asked him where did the fruits come from.
“Sarikei,” he replied.
“How did they arrive in Kuching?” I asked him.
“Don’t know,” he replied.
Nevertheless, I decided to buy half kilogramme of dabai after checking that the fruits were still quite fresh and had not shrivelled yet.
That night, when I soaked the fruits in warm water, I found all were good. Their flesh was still soft.
Although the fruits were expensive, I did not mind paying for them. Eating the dabai brought back happy childhood memories of eating together with my mother, grandmother and aunts.
I also recalled boarding an express boat loaded with passengers and many huge rotan baskets of dabai. The fruits were bound for the markets in Sibu.
My grandmother, my siblings and I had boarded the boat which came from Kapit at Kanowit. My grandmother, who lived in Kanowit, was sending us back to Sibu at the end of our long year-end school holidays.
Now that express boat services between Sibu and Kapit have ceased due to the completion of the Sibu-Kapit Road, the sights of express boats carrying huge baskets of dabai have been consigned to the pages of history.
Dabai and durian owners now resort to private vehicles or buses to transport their fruits to Sibu and other urban centres in the state. These forms of transport may be more expensive but they are faster.
And in business, speed often translates directly to profitability, particularly for perishable goods like fresh produce including dabai. Utilising private vehicles and buses for transport ensures the most direct and rapid delivery from the farm to market, maintaining product freshness and maximising market value.
There are now regular bus services between Kapit and Sibu with companies like Kapit Bus Express and Lanang Road Bus Company offering frequent trips daily and multiple departure times throughout the day, from early morning (around 6.30 am) until 4.00 pm. A one-way bus trip costs around RM22.
I visited Kapit a few times in the 1980s when I was working for a Brunei weekly, the Borneo Bulletin, as a reporter. If I have the opportunity, I would love to visit it again, particularly during the dabai season, and see for myself the significant development that the town has undergone in recent years.
From a remote town accessible only by express boats, Kapit has transformed into one that is connected by road and is the focus of numerous major infrastructure projects.
The Sarawak government aims to make Kapit a modern inland town and a pedestrian-friendly, eco-tourism city within a decade. New housing schemes and the Beletih New Township have been developed to meet population growth.
Do you know that Sarawak’s Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity and Regional Development has identified the central region of the state as the ideal location for the development of the Dabai Belt?
In a ministerial winding-up speech at the State Legislative Assembly sitting in May 2023, minister in charge of the ministry, Datuk Seri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom affirmed the state’s commitment to the commercialisation of high-value indigenous food crops, particularly the dabai fruit, found only certain parts of Sarawak.
He revealed then that there were an estimated 13,000 thriving dabai trees in the central region, yielding an average production of 650 metric tonnes per season.
To further boost the production of dabai, Dr Rundi announced that the Department of Agriculture would launch a comprehensive rehabilitation programme aimed at revitalising the existing trees in these areas by 2024.
In July 2023, permanent secretary to the Ministry of Food Industry, Commodaity and Regional Development, Sirai Daha (now a Datuk) revealed that the ministry had identified an area of more than 40,000 hectares located between Song and Ngemah in Kanowit for the development of the Dabai Belt and to produce ‘the best dabai.’
Later, it was reported that the government had allocated RM1.3 million to implement a Dabai Rehabilitation Programme across the Kanowit, Song and Kapit districts involving 220 small holders.
Ministers have encouraged entrepreneurs to produce unique dabai products to meet high demand both within Sarawak and for potential export.
Deputy Premier, Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, for instance, has pointed out that the nuts from the seeds of the dabai fruit are edible and taste as good as pistachios.
If fully harnessed, dabai, he added, could be an innovation that could be enhanced to be another product.
He made the comments while visiting a Gawai Festival Bazaar in Kuching on June 20, 2022.
Yes, the overall sentiment from the state ministers is that the dabai fruit has significant commercial potential and can become a key agricultural product for Sarawak with proper development and innovation.
Dabai lovers like yours truly welcome the development of the Dabai Belt. I look forward to the day when good dabai will be on sale at reasonable prices in Kuching City.
The views expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of Sarawak Tribune. The writer can be reached at adelinel888@gmail.com.
Pix: Dabai
