MPB holds dialogue with local pepper farmers
SARIKEI: A total of 106 local pepper farmers attended a dialogue session with the Malaysian Pepper Board ( MPB) at Sarikei District Council Hall here yesterday.
The main objective of the dialogue was to provide a platform for MPB to explain current issues and disseminate accurate information pertaining to the pepper industry as well as to get feedback or reaction of the local pepper farmers toward problems faced by the industry.
Julau member of Parliament Larry Sng who is also MPB chairman officiated at the dialogue session.
He said the choice of Sarikei as the venue for the dialogue was appropriate given that the Division is the largest pepper producer in Sarawak.
According to him, Sarikei Division which has a total of 5,155 hectares (ha) of pepper plantations comprising of 815 ha in Sarikei District, Julau (1,954 ha), Pakan (1,983 ha) and Meradong (403 ha) produced a total of 9,654 metric tons of pepper berries in 2017.
He said MPB has provided assistance to 380 smallholders under the pepper replanting scheme this year.
Last year, some 300 smallholders mostly from Pakan and Sarikei District, received similar assistance. To ensure high quality pepper products for export, MPB office here carries out processing and market control ( pepper grading) activities regularly.
He said in the first ten months of this year, MPB Sarikei had exported a total of 2,846.1 metric tons of graded black pepper and 318.7 metric tons of graded white pepper, adding they were mainly of Special Black, FAQ Black and FAQ White grades which are in high demand.
He urged pepper farmers to work closely with MPB in the development of the local pepper industry.
Among those present were MPB chief supervisor ( Sales) Lucas Chin, acting Regional director ( Sarawak/Sabah) Apoi Wan, senior assistant director Langgi Chaling and assistant director Nelson Fu.