A total of 770 hectares of land have been planted with pineapples since the 2016 implementation of the integrated pineapple project. In this project: pineapple is inter-cropped with oil palm and rubber.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Sim Tze Tzin said in 53 percent of the acreage, pineapple is inter-cropped with oil palm, 35 percent with rubber while the remaining 12 percent is mixed with fruit and coconut trees.
He was replying to an oral question from Datuk Seri Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim (BN-Baling), who wanted to know whether the pineapple intercropping incentive has helped oil palm and rubber smallholders to lessen their cost of living burden.
Sim said 679 participants have so far benefited from the integrated pineapple project, which was introduced by his ministry through the Malaysian Pineapple Industry Board as one way to promote pineapple cultivation as well as supplement the incomes of oil palm and rubber smallholders.
Last year, Malaysia was the 23rd largest pineapple producer in the world and the fifth largest in Southeast Asia after Thailand, the Philippines, Indonesia and Vietnam. In 2018, Malaysia produced 382,811 tonnes of pineapple, or 27.7 percent of the fruit sub-sector’s output.
Sim: “National pineapple production is expected to grow 22.1 percent annually with the 2020 output projected at 700,000 tonnes. Pineapple exports in 2018 were valued at RM342 million (€75.2 mln), up 39.18 percent over 2017,” he added.
