PPPKBS PLANS TO SET UP CENTRALIZED MARKET FOR FARMERS

PPPKBS plans to set up centralized market for farmers

SINGAPORE 13th June, 2012: The Persatuan Penjaja dan Peniaga Kecil Bumiputera Sabah (PPPKBS) is planning to set up a wholesale fruit and vegetable market to serve as a centralized trading centre for farmers in Sabah.

PPPKBS president Yazid Sahjinan, said the proposal was among the initial idea they are planning to do after visiting the land-scarce republic which uses high technology farming to produce essential fresh farm crops to meet domestic demand.

“We don’t have a modern farming technology yet and I think we still have a long way to catch up and learn from them even though we have plenty of land but not fully utilized,” admitted Yazid, who organised the study tour to visit several of the agro-based farms in the republic state last month.

The educational programme was coordinated by Blue Eagle Adventures Travel & Tours Sdn Bhd. They also visited the Hay Dairies Goat Farm, Qian Hu Fish Farm and Hydroponics Farm.

“I am impressed with what I saw at the wholesale market at Pasir Panjang which served as a hub for the suppliers to congregate and a meeting point for the buyers to source for their fresh produces,” he said.

He proposed to the government to build a centralised centre for the local farmers to market their produces as now they don’t have a designated facility in place.

He said Singapore was chosen for the trip so as to serve as an eye opener for the entourage which comprised association members from Kundasang and Ranau (all of them are farmers).

“We want to let them know (local farmers) that Singapore is just a small island and had limited land for farming and yet they could produce quality crops,” said Yazid.

Besides that, he said Singapore is also known for importing most of its goods from overseas and we hope to capture some of this market share in future.

“Through this visit, I want to let them (local farmers) see the method and how they (Singaporeans) manage to utilize their limited resources and if we want to export our products to them what are the essential requirements needed,” he said.

We want to learn from the Singapore experience on how we could manage our farms professionally in term of applying modern technology and packaging our product which is an important aspect to attract the buyers’ attention and confidence, he said.

“We also want to let them (local farmers) see that in order to be successful we need to be discipline like the Singaporeans,” he said.

Furthermore, he said our farmers here should also learn to live without getting subsidy from the government like Singaporeans who have to work hard to survive.

“The subsidy mentality is actually making us (bumiputeras) weak and unable to compete with others,” he stated.

And since Singaporeans don’t have the opportunity to own a land, he noted that their government provided all the facilities to the people and allowed them to lease for the land for about 20 years.

He said the sojourn to the republic state was also a fact finding for the association to find out what are the volumes they needed if we wanted to do business with them.

“We also need to know if our local farmers could produce and supply the amount of quantity needed by the importers,” he said, adding that the study tour was just a first step for the association to help its members to progress.

In order to venture into the overseas market, Yazid said the farmers in Sabah who want to make it big need to get the necessary certification from the relevant authorities so that the product they produced are in accordance with the international standard.