During-Eating Festival whets appetite for more

LAWAS: More than 1,000 durian lovers throughout the state as well as from Sabah and Brunei took part in the Lawas District Durian-Eating Festival 2024.

Sarawak Deputy Premier Datuk Amar Awang Tengah Ali Hasan said the event was held to promote and encourage the agro tourism industry in the district.

Moving forward, he said, the local community should improve the quality of the fruits by growing popular varieties of durian.

“We need to diversify the planting of durian (varieties) with the popular types (varieties),” he said this during the closing ceremony of the festival at the Trusan Community Hall here on Saturday.

“(In fact) there is a company that is interested in setting up a durian farm in Lawas, if this materialises, it will help villagers to grow more (varieties) of durians.

“At the same time, we can be involved in areas to increase added value such as durian ice cream and so on.

“This is what we should look into, especially in processing (value-added products), packaging thus improving the quality of the product,” he said.

Also present were Lawas Member of Parliament Datuk Henry Sum Agong, Batu Danau assemblyman Datuk Paulus Palu Gumbang, Director of the Northern Region Development Agency (NRDA) Datuk Ubaidillah Abdul Latip and Lawas District Officer Ladin Atok.