KUALA LUMPUR (July 17): The government will examine aid and methods of transitioning traditional durian cultivation to high-value durians, which can be a new economic boom for the country.

Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said this matter will be detailed more deeply, as it is a source of business, especially when ‘raw’ durians can now be exported to China.

“We need to look at increasing [farmers’] income…we will discuss it from the point of view of grants or easy loans and so on. We need to sit down [and discuss] properly...durians are not the same as rice, meat, fish, eggs or cooking oil, which are necessities,” he said in the Dewan Rakyat on Wednesday.

Mohamad, who is also known as Mat Sabu, said the government sees durians as a source of business, and not a necessity like rice, eggs, fish and so on, where the government provides many subsidies to maintain reasonable prices.

The minister said this in response to an additional question from Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (Perikatan Nasional-Bukit Gantang) regarding the government's measures to help durian farmers and his proposal for the government to allocate RM20 million, during a question-and-answer session in the Dewan Rakyat.

When answering an additional question from Sim Tze Tzin (Pakatan Harapan-Bayan Baru) regarding a proposal to create durian tourism and establish a durian board, Mohamad said durian tourism does indeed exist.

“When tourists especially from China land in Penang, they go to Balik Pulau to eat durians…[just] like yesterday (Tuesday), when I was in Bukit Bintang, I went to a big place that sells durians, and all who came there were mostly Chinese tourists, because for them, the price is not a problem.”

As for setting up a durian board, the minister said this is a good suggestion, "and we will bring it up for discussion at the ministerial level".

“The New York Times recently predicted that durians are a new economic crop for Malaysia, after the ministry signed [a memorandum of understanding] with China's General Administration Department of Customs. We will give serious attention to Bayan Baru's (Sim) suggestion for economic growth," Mohamad added.

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