Premier: Sarawak to airlift agro products to Singapore soon, eyes expansion to Nusantara

KOTA SAMARAHAN (Sept 25): The Sarawak Farmers Association (PPNS) will be using cargo aircrafts to ship agricultural products to Singapore soon, said Premier Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg.

He said this will be the first step before expanding to a bigger market including Nusantara, Indonesia’s new capital city in Kalimantan.

“We try it once first. We look at how the market reaction is first, and then we will increase (the cargo flights) if we get successful response. It’s just like how agricultural products are sent using lorries, but we will use cargo plane, a mid size cargo plane.

“We are on an island. We cannot use lorry to ship products to Singapore, so we will use planes instead,” he told a press conference after launching the PPNS new headquarters here today.

He also said since PPNS is now allocated RM10 million annually by the Sarawak government, some of the funds can be used to charter cargo aircraft for the purpose of transporting the agricultural products.

Earlier, Abang Johari suggested PPNS to go for a wider market outside Sarawak to increase its revenue.

He also said Sarawak plans to increase the contribution from the agricultural sector to the state’s gross domestic product (GDP) index from the present 10 per cent to 25 per cent.

Meanwhile, PPNS chairman Datuk Dr Abdul Rahman Ismail said the organisation’s net income increased from RM415,046 in 2022 to RM2.37 million in 2013.

He announced that for this year, the net income is expected to reach RM3.5 million.

“The target is to hit two figures, namely RM10 million in net income in 2025,” he said.

He also said with the increase in income, PPNS was able to give dividends to Area Farmers Organisations (PPK) in 2023 after not doing so since 2017

“Last year, the dividend was six per cent (based on income in 2022). For this year, we suggest to give out dividends of 10 per cent (based on income in 2023),” he said.

PPNS currently has 28 PPKs statewide, with about 174,000 members.

It is also now an agency under the Ministry of Food Industries, Commodities and Regional Development (M-Ficord).

Also present was Food Industries, Commodities and Regional Development Minister Dato Sri Stephen Rundi Utom.