MPB to continue purchasing pepper from farmers from Aug 8

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Sng (left) with Liew at the press conference.

KUCHING: The Malaysian Pepper Board (MPB) will continue to purchase pepper from farmers from Aug 8.

Its chairman Larry Sng said they announced a temporary suspension of purchase on July 26 but some farmers might have missed the announcement and hence still dropping by to sell their pepper.

“We have been doing our best to accommodate and buy pepper from genuine farmers daily,” he said at a press conference at the MPB headquarters here today.

He made these remarks to dismiss a recent news report on farmers rushing to sell their pepper in Sarikei on July 26.

According to MPB, there were only about 20 sellers in Sibu and less than 10 sellers in Bintangor on the same day.

With him was MPB director general Stanley Liew, who said even though the statement recently issued by the board stated that they would temporarily stop buying pepper from farmers, they didn’t have the heart to turn sellers away.

“We don’t want to chase them away because some of them may not be aware of the temporary suspension. We pity them.

“Most of these farmers sell about 200kg to 500kg which we can still accommodate. So even though we announced the temporary suspension, we still buy,” he said.

To a question, Liew said the temporary suspension had to be initiated due to the constant buying from farmers since the peak of harvest season end of June.

He added that MPB had been buying about 100 metric tonnes of pepper each day for the past two weeks.

This, he said, had led to a full warehouse and that MPB required some time to clear the stocks since processing of pepper takes time.

“We are buying three or four times more than we can process. Hence, we are increasing manpower for our processing plants to process faster.”

According to Sng, MPB has been buying pepper above the prices offered by pepper traders in Malaysia.

“Usually our prices range from about RM0.80 to RM 2 higher per kg, depending on locations. The reason for us buying at higher prices is to help pepper farmers get higher or fair value for their pepper, for both black and white.

“Malaysia pepper prices depend on world supply and demand. The current world production in 2018 is estimated at 438,650 metric tonnes. The total world export figure is 385,000 metric tonnes. MPB has always been buying at higher prices to benefit our pepper farmers,” he explained.

Sng pointed out that MPB had presently three processing centres, located in Kuching, Sibu and Sarikei.

“These processing plants have dry and wet cleaning facilities including Mikrokleen that is steam treatment for higher quality Sarawak pepper for international markets to fetch higher value.

“These machines cost millions of ringgit. Like any machines, each of these machines has limit in the processing capacity. In view of the harvest season now, we have added manpower and increased the work shifts too,” he said.

Sng also urged all newspapers to report accurate information and play down sensational issues which could result in misleading the farmers and cause panic to both the farmers and the community.

He said the media fraternity could check with MPB for accurate information before they published.

At present, there are 33,767 pepper farmers in Malaysia, 95 per cent of whom are from Sarawak.