Himmat Singh (left) plants a young pepper vine to commemorate the visit to the farm owned by Ta-o (right).
Himmat Singh (third left) and Henry Ta-o (fifth from right) and his family members pose for a group photograph at the pepper farm.
KUCHING: Sarawak remains the highest producer of pepper in the country, said Ministry of Plantation Industries and Commodities secretary general Datuk Himmat Singh.
He revealed that based on Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB)’s statistics, Sarawak accounted for 98 per cent of the nation’s pepper production and the state produced 14,903 tonnes of pepper valued at RM287.4 million in 2011.
“About 20 per cent of Sarawak pepper was exported to Japan in 2011, 17 per cent to Peninsular Malaysia, 13 per cent to Taiwan, 10 per cent to South Korea, eight per cent to Singapore and seven per cent to China. The market for pepper is stable and the quality that Sarawak is producing complies with the world standard.
“MPB is working closely with the agriculture research team in Semenggoh to ensure only quality pepper are planted,” he said after leading a group of the ministry’s officers and MPB officers to visit a pepper farm owned by Henry Ta-o at Kampung Semadang, off Jalan Puncak Borneo, 50 kilometres from the city recently.
Also in the visiting group was the ministry’s deputy secretary general (strategic planning and management) Dr Aminuddin Hassim.
Himmat Singh said the high price of pepper should encourage more farmers to cultivate the crop, thus enabling MPB to achieve its target of expanding the area planted with pepper from 14,600 to 20,000 hectares by 2020.
According to 2014 statistics produced by MPB, he said 67, 214 farmers were involved in pepper planting activities with a total area of 16,021 hectares and 89.6 per cent were found in Sarawak.
The three main divisions involved in pepper planting activities in Sarawak are Sarikei with 4,964 ha, involving 15,261 planters and producing 8,737 metric tons of pepper a year, Betong 2,635 ha involving 13,661 planters and producing 4,561 metric tons and Samarahan 3,471 ha involving 15,190 planters with production of 5,941 metric tons.
Meanwhile, Himmat Singh and the ministry’s officers were shown around Ta-o’s farm and were briefed on the planting process and how pepper berries are processed. They then presented equipment for processing pepper berries worth about RM3,000 to Ta-o.
Ta-o, when interviewed, admitted that not many farmers dare to take the risk of venturing into pepper planting although there is rising world demand and good price as they fear the price of the commodity might plunge.
Nevertheless, the 72-year-old farmer said the fluctuating prices of the commodity had never bothered him. Having more than 40 years of experience in pepper planting, Ta-o said he had suffered both losses and gain but that did not deter him from continuing to cultivate the crop.
Even now he is cultivating 750 vines of pepper in his farm which he planted over the past three years, with 350 vines planted in 2012 and another 400 vines planted last year.
As his pepper farm is under the MPB new pepper project, Ta-o received a one-off assistance from MPB in 2013, which he is grateful for. He said the 350 matured vines started to bear fruit last year and with the good price he was able to earn about RM12,000 from the sale of the berries.
“This year the production will be double or even more and I hope the price will remain or even increase,” he said, adding that he was looking forward to earn RM30,000 to RM40,000 from the sale of the berries.
Ta-o, who planned to expand his farm with 200 more vines this year, said he intends to process the berries into white pepper as it fetches higher price compared to black pepper.