S’wak to set up unit under M-Ficord to manage seasonal fruits, focus on downstream products

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By DayakDaily Team

KUCHING, Jan 15: The Ministry of Food Industry, Commodity, and Regional Development (M-Ficord) Sarawak plans to establish a unit to manage seasonal fruits, with an emphasis on downstream activities to produce value-added products from these fruits, said its minister Dato Sri Dr Stephen Rundi Utom.

According to a Sarawak Public Communication Unit (Ukas) news report, Dr Rundi said the proposal was driven by concerns for farmers who had been encouraged by the government to produce seasonal fruits, but whose produce had yet to be managed in a systematic manner.

“So the answer is, we need to move downstream where we can create products from produce which must be marketable.

“For example, durian can be made into paste, ice cream, and so on, including dabai, which can also be made into various products,” he said when speaking at the 2026 Gemilang Agro-Based Industry Dinner held at a leading hotel here yesterday (Jan 14).

He also said reassessing the role of M-Ficord is seen as a strategic measure to improve the effectiveness of policy implementation, streamline governance and ensure a clearer focus on the ministry’s core responsibilities.

Dr Rundi highlighted that M-Ficord is among the ministries that shoulder a wide scope of responsibilities, covering agriculture, land development and rural development, making it complex in terms of planning and implementation.

“However, for the coming years or terms, perhaps we need to reassess, so that we can focus more on the ministry’s tasks,” he said.

He added that there could be additional ministers, not exceeding four, so that responsibilities could be shared, while the public service structure would remain unchanged.

Also present were M-Ficord permanent secretary Datu Sirai Daha, Sarawak Agriculture Department deputy director Gilbert Igi, and officers from the Sarawak Agriculture Department. — DayakDaily

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