S’wak, UPM to develop indigenous durians

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Uggah takes a closer look at an indigenous durian on display while visiting UPM Bintulu campus, while looking on are (from left to right) Prof Aini, Prof Bujang, corporate figure Datuk Yap Yun Fook (partly hidden) and Prof Patricia Ting of UPM.

 

BINTULU: Sarawak government is seeking the help of scientists from University Putra Malaysia (UPM)  to develop  indigenous durians to become products that are more popular than Musang King, said Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

He believed that indigenous durians of Sarawak have very high quality and can be marketed locally and internationally.

“I think we have a lot of durian species in Sarawak that we can develop. I hope in five years’ time we will have our very own Sarawak durians that can overcome the popularity of Musang King. This is the area we can work with UPM,” he said during a working visit to UPM Bintulu Campus on Friday.

He met UPM top guns led by the varsity vice chancellor Prof Datin Paduka Datuk Dr Aini Ideris and head of UPM Bintulu campus and Dean of the school of Graduate Studies Prof Dr Bujang Kim Huat.

One of the models adopted by Sarawak government, he added, was to appoint an anchor farm with 30 years’ experience to develop the durian industry, not only to learn from their experiences but to ride on their markets and processing facilities that are already recognized by worldwide buyers.

“Why we choose Top Fruits from Johor is because they have 30 years’ experience and their processing facilities met the requirements of international market in 11 countries, and we started to work out on rehabilitation of durians,” he said.

Uggah hoped that UPM and Sarawak government will work closely together to develop Sarawak’s agriculture sector.

He was also very glad to note that UPM will be working with renowned Sabahan corporate figure Datuk Yap Yun Fook, who have more than 30 years’ experience in dairy farming and who has 500 acres of durian farm in Sabah.

 

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