Malaysia-grown shallots available for domestic use by 2030, says Mohamad Sabu
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — The government is hoping that Malaysia-grown crops will make up 30 per cent of shallots for local consumption by 2030, Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu has said.
At the moment, he said Malaysia depends 100 per cent on imported onions and garlic from India, Netherlands, China, Pakistan and Thailand.
“The government for now is focused on building shallot plantation, as the Malaysian Agricultural Research and Development Institute (Mardi) has yet to find a suitable strain of big onions that can be planted locally.
“The government’s strategy is to reduce the import of onions, and this will be done in two phases. The first phase is pre-commercial and the second is commercial market,” Mohamad told the Parliament today during question time.
He was responding to PAS’ Bagan Serai MP Datuk Idris Ahmad who asked the government to elaborate on its efforts to reduce the import of onions by up to 30 per cent.
Explaining further, Mohamad said the pre-commercial phase is currently being carried out whereby the government is monitoring the potential of shallot plantations and this will be done in two years starting this year.
He earlier said that as of 2022, Malaysia imported 687,000 metric tonne worth of onions, worth RM1.58 billion.
From this number, shallots make up 38,000 metric tonnes worth RM2.5 million to sustain domestic use.
“As for the plantation programme, shallots will be planted on 50-hectare land, with another 50 hectares in 2025.
“With this, the estimated yield is five metric tonnes per hectare. The planting of shallots will be done twice a year, and in this phase, there is an estimated 1,000 metric tonne yield, and the commercial phase will be executed in five years,” he added.
Mohamad said this also meant that the commercial phase would commence from 2026 to 2030.
“In this period, 1,346 hectares of land will be used as a shallot plantation and with an expected yield of 14,470 metric tonnes and will fulfil 30 per cent of local consumption.
“In 2020, an estimation was made that these shallots would cost more than those imported, but for food security purposes, we have to make available an alternative to the rakyat in case of any import restrictions or export ones by the origin country.
“The first harvest of the shallots will be in April, so if we work together, we will at least by 2030 arrive at 30 per cent shallots for local consumption,” he said.
