AFTER muscling out durian farmers who have been cultivating the fruit for over 50 years, the Raub District Council is now planning a “rent-seeking” exercise that will rake in millions from these very farmers whom they had evicted and whose trees they had destroyed.
The council’s 2035 Local Draft Plan reveals proposals for a rent-seeking exercise built on the backs of durian farmers in the district.
The draft plan’s objection period, which ended on October 21, proposes the creation of an “agro-hub”, which will see the favourite and expensive Musang King variety being cultivated on a wider scale.
With the reasoning of “strengthening Raub’s financial standing”, the draft plan seeks to impose “commissions” on these farmers.
“The council will compel the usage of Raub Musang King logos and special cartons to promote the fruit overseas and locally,” read an excerpt from the draft plan.
This exercise alone, said the district council, will generate between RM4 million and RM6 million annually for the council.
What would be regarded as another stinker of a deal to these farmers is that the district council plans to introduce the compulsory use of Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) chips for each individual fruit. Yes, each Musang King from Raub will come with an RFID chip to differentiate it from non-Raub durians.
“This exercise alone will generate about RM2 million a year in revenue for the council,” the draft plan stated.
The Raub District Council defends this proposal by explaining that it is not earning any revenue from the durian industry due to illegal farming.
Logic would dictate that if these farmers were properly regulated by giving them temporary operating licences, the council and the state would have more streamlined revenue coming from these industries.
However, instead of going through this tried-and-tested route, the powers that be decided to give an exclusive deal to a private company with royal ties.
Last year, amid the controversy of durian farmers being ousted from farms in forest reserves, the Raub District Council, with the backing of the state government, decreed that all Musang King durian cultivation will be streamlined under a consortium made up of a joint venture between the Pahang Agriculture Development Corporation (PKPP) and Royal Pahang Durian Resources Sdn Bhd.
The latter is chaired by Pahang’s Tengku Puteri Raja Tengku Puteri Iman Afzan Al-Sultan Abdullah.
Raub is regarded as the Musang King capital of Malaysia, and 79% of durians in Pahang are grown here.
A total of 70,650 tonnes valued at RM1.7 billion was cultivated in 2018 alone.
This is expected to increase to an estimated RM4.95 billion in value in 2035 – where of this figure, RM3.6 billion in revenue is expected to be generated by Musang King sales and exports.
Durian farmers in Pahang, notably Raub, have been cultivating durian from as far back as 1961.
This was part of the assimilation of communist sympathisers as well as the effort to convert Pahang’s vast jungles into agricultural land.
However, present farmers say they and their fathers and grandfathers before them had been applying for operating licences from the state but to no avail for almost 50 years.
Last year saw over 200 of these farmers being evicted from their orchards in forest reserves – many of which had been in the family for half a century.
They were even stopped from harvesting their durians and, in what can be described as an act of pure spite in July this year, the state Forestry Department cut down some 15,000 Musang King trees in an area measuring 101ha in a forest reserve.
An injunction was later sought along with a judicial review when 94 of the durian farmers affected by evictions and destruction of their orchards had named the Pahang Agriculture Development Corp, the director of the Forestry Department, the Raub Land District office, Royal Pahang Durian Resources Sdn Bhd, PKPP and the Pahang government as respondents.
Turned down at the high court, their appeal was granted by the Court of Appeal on September 8, when these farmers won a reprieve.
How long this will last remains to be seen. But the new proposals under the draft plan go to show that imaginative ways are being conjured up by various parties to get a piece of the action from the blood, sweat and tears of these farmers. – The Vibes, October 24, 2021
Terence Fernandez is editor-in-chief of PETRA News and managing editor at The Vibes
