From Field to Fork: Top 10 happenings in August​

Here’s a round-up of Malaysia’s agriculture and food highlights in the press for August 2022.

• Agro-Food Takaful Insurance Scheme to cover Malaysia’s 189,500 rice farmers. Sectors including fisheries and other food industry sub-sectors will follow in stages through the scheme’s expansion plan.

• Legislation for food waste management. Housing and Local Government Ministry collaborating with Japanese Environment Ministry to develop food waste management guidelines. In 2021, leftover meat and vegetables made up 24% (4,081 tonnes) of edible food waste. This is equivalent to one-and-a-half Olympic-sized swimming pool.

• Inflation of meat prices increased by 2.4% and vegetables prices increased by 8% within a span of 1 month (May to June 2022).
  Source: Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM)

• Additional RM200 million for the Keluarga Malaysia Agrofood Financing Fund (DPAKM). Previous allocation by Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry (MAFI) through Agrobank stood at RM800 million. The total RM1 billion allocations will be used to increase the country’s food production and will benefit the agro-food farming community.

• Government caps retail price of chicken at RM9.40 per kg in Peninsular Malaysia from July 1 to Aug 31. The Dewan Rakyat also passed the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Amendment) Bill 2022. The passing of this bill gives the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) more power to stabilise the livestock commodity supply chain.

• 55.2% increase in Malaysia’s palm oil and palm-oil based product exports during the first 6 months of 2022 (RM67.48 billion). The same period in 2021 was RM43.47 billion.

• More “young blood” needed in agriculture to avert food insecurities. As of December 2021, local youths in the agricultural sector comprised only 15% of the total number of farmers in Malaysia.

• 5kg bottle of palm-based cooking oil fixed at RM34.70 in Peninsular Malaysia. This new fixed price will take effect on August 8 onwards. Previously, consumers paid between RM39 to RM42.

• MPOC signs MoU with Indian Vegetable Oil Producers’ Association (IVPA) to meet India’s palm oil demand. IVPA has estimated India’s palm oil imports from Malaysia to remain stable in the second half of 2022, making up about 55% of India’s total palm oil imports.

• Self-watering planting system and other technologies showcased at MAHA 2022 agriculture expo. MARDI research centre director says the self-watering planting system could increase production 4 to 6 times per unit of space compared to conventional farming. The system could also save fertiliser and agricultural input costs of up to 25% compared to the hydroponic method.