KUCHING: The state Agriculture Department has been directed to look into ways to ensure excess fruits like the seasonal rambutans and durians would not go to waste especially when they are in abundance.
One way was to work out a mechanism to buy fruits like the pineapples, bananas, watermelons and durians to be processed or dried, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
He suggested that excess fruits could also be processed into healthy and tasty snacks.
Uggah, who is also Agriculture Modernisation, Native Land and Regional Development Minister, was asked to comment on a recent news report by the New Sarawak Tribune urging for immediate action by the relevant authority to stop excess fruits going to waste season after season.
In the news report, Sarawak Institute for Public Affairs (SIPA) director Philip Wong said he had been observing the sad state of affair for years and reminded the relevant authority to make good its promise to look into the plight of the farmers and orchardists.
Uggah said the excess fruits could be potential downstream products.
Earlier, Uggah witnessed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the state government and Lotus Farm Agritech Sdn Bhd.
The MoU is to promote and enhance cooperation between Lotus farm and the state government in the production of food crops using greenhouses, fertigation and hydrophonic farming systems in Sarawak.
The private venture, which also owns a farm in Johor, expanded its operation to Sarawak in 2017. Its flagship product is the golden melon.
