Prime Minister Dr Mahathir (second left) and wife Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohd Ali are seen visiting the Malaysia Durian Festival exhibition booth in Beijing, China.
BEIJING: In conjunction with the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, PLS Plantation Bhd (PLS Plantation), a public listed company in Bursa Malaysia, has taken the initiative to further promote Malaysia durians in China by organising the Malaysia Durian Festival 2019 in Beijing.
During the two-day event, PLS Plantation signed ‘Heads of Agreement’ with Shanghai Greenland Group, ZTE Corporation and Shanghai Ptsky Bio-technology from China, FGV Holdings Bhd from Malaysia.
This is part of PLS Plantation’s plan to further enhance the business relationship between Malaysia and China in durian trading.
The signing ceremony was witnessed by Minister of Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Datuk Salahuddin Ayub, and Minister of Economic Affairs Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali.
Other ministers present at the event included Prime Minister of Malaysia Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and Minister of Foreign Affairs Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah.
In early March 2019, PLS Plantation signed a strategic partnership agreement with Greenland, to form Greenland-PLS Joint Venture for the business development of imports, sales and marketing of durian products.
Since then, Greenland-PLS Joint Venture had successfully imported products made from the fruits of many popular durian species from Malaysia, including D197 Musang King and D24 Sultan King, consisting mainly of frozen products.
PLS Plantation is confident that durian in Malaysia will be in demand and distributed to various cities in China, and this would contribute revenue to PLS Plantation Bhd’s durian business division.
Through collaboration with FGV Holdings Bhd, Shanghai Greenland Group, ZTE Corporation and Shanghai Ptsky Bio-technology, PLS Plantation Bhd trusts that agricultural development in Malaysia will be advanced to another level and contribute to the overall economy of Malaysia to benefit the people for the long term.
According to the trade data compiled by United Nations, durian exports to China have been increasing by an average of 35 per cent annually, and was estimated to be worth US$1.1 billion in 2017, which was significantly higher than US$243 million a decade ago.