MACHANG – The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) has spent RM375,000 to purchase about 150 tonnes of kampung durians to prevent a glut and drop in the price of the king of fruits.
Kelantan director Wan Nora Wan Ahmad said the agency bought the fruit from 600 durian orchard owners in the districts of Jeli, Tanah Merah, Kuala Krai, and Pasir Puteh.
She said Fama bought the fruit at RM2.50 per kg, compared with the farm price of RM2 per kg.
“Kelantan is the largest producer of kampung durians in the country, but the price has dropped due to movement controls, making it difficult to market the fruit to other states especially in the west coast,” she told reporters after visiting a durian processing centre at the Machang Fama office here today.
She said Fama had also appointed agents among orchard owners to facilitate marketing their fruit directly to Fama without going through middlemen.
Wan Nora said durians bought from the orchard owners were taken to the processing centre at the FAMA office to be processed into durian paste, tempoyak, and durian pulp.
“They (durian paste, tempoyak, and durian pulp) are in high demand, especially by food entrepreneurs, in the making of food products such as durian ice cream, cakes, and others, which have a market in Singapore and China,” she added. – Bernama, August 4, 2021
