For pensioner, happiness is selling cut-price sugar cane juice
PUTRAJAYA: Think of a sizzling hot day and the thirst-quenching image of cold sugarcane juice pops into your head.
But with the cost of living a big issue for many, a government pensioner is more than content to eke out a humble living by selling the drink at a generous price of RM4 for a jug and RM8 for a 1.5-litre bottle.
‘Rahmah price’, as Adrus Wahab, 69, calls it.
Compared to other hawkers selling for RM14 to RM15 per 1.5litre bottle, and between RM7 and RM8 for a jug, Adrus – more affectionately known as ‘Ham’, is able to sell his for half the price because he grows sugarcane himself.
“Looking at the current situation (high cost of living) and I myself coming from a poor family, there are those craving for sugarcane juice but can’t afford it.
“With one jug at a steep RM8, what if there are three to four children? Is one bottle enough? So people can only gawk at the stall but cannot taste,” he said when met at his stall in Kampung Jenderam Hilir here.
Ham said he took serious note of the despair in daily living as he once encountered a cake trader who would not part with hard-earned cash to buy his child a packet of sugar cane juice because it was too costly.
“I don’t follow other hawkers’ pricing; I think of human frailty.
"I stick to (the proverb of) ‘life is not because of promises, death not because of oaths’ (‘life and death is fated’).”
When he started out selling sugarcane juice only five years ago, Ham was helped by his four children to sell ‘Rahmah’ sugarcane juice online through social media until he managed to open his own stall.
His Rahmah sugarcane juice has been selling like hot cakes not only among local residents, but soon its fame has spread far and wide to Kedah and Terengganu.
When Ham first planted his own sugar cane crop at 52, he only sold the raw produce of the fibrous stalk to money-minded buyers who only cared for the lowest of prices.
“The capital (for planting) is high, for example fertiliser costs RM140 for 25kg compared to previously RM120 for 50kg, and even the cheapest herbicide costs RM80.
“I felt it was unrewarding when buyers overlook the hard work and toil of small cane farmers and only wanted to buy it cheap.
“So I figured it out in a discussion with my children, that I might as well sell sugarcane juice myself,” he recalled.
Planting sugarcane and harvesting it for the juice is no easy task, with Ham hacking away at 8am for 100 stalks from his garden near the house until sunset before he can open his stall.
According to him, the 100 stalks translate into a day of selling 40 1.5-litre bottles.
On Sundays, he can push more than 60 bottles.
“For bigger profit, I could have bought plastic bags at RM9 for 1,000 pieces to package the juice for my customers.
“But I’d rather pay 48 sen for one plastic bottle because I think it gives more satisfaction to drink fresh sugarcane juice out of a bottle,” he added.