Charcoal business thrives despite ridicule

KUALA BERANG: Despite being ridiculed by his friends for his choice of career, 29year old Muhd Dzaqwan Sukry soared through the taunts and has made his charcoal-making business a success.

In fact, the mockings fired his determination, and today three years later, Muhd Dzaqwan and his father Sukry Abdullah, 57, from Kampung Kuala Menjing here, produce 2,400 bags of charcoal per month which is still insufficient to meet demand in the area.

Reliving their story, Muhd Dzaqwan said it all started three years ago when the father and son realised that there were piles of discarded wood in Kuala Berang.

At that time, Muhd Dzaqwan did odd jobs to help his father earn money to support their family of six. Friends had asked him to work in factories in the cities, but as the eldest son in the family, Muhd Dzaqwan wanted to stay back to help look after his family.

“In the beginning, it was a challenge getting customers and marketing the charcoal. We did many things including selling the charcoal in a lorry around the Hulu Terengganu district, because we did not know how to market it through the social media, but now, we do not have to look for customers as they come to us,” he told reporters when met at his home here last Sunday.

Muhd Dzaqwan said that although the operations are conducted traditionally, he had modified the ‘gok’ or the charcoal furnace to make it easier to arrange and collect the finished product.

The new ‘gok’, he said, is bigger in size and can burn three tonnes of woods at one time, helping him meet the demand from his customers who are mainly restaurant owners, night market traders and grocery store owners.