KUALA LUMPUR: Brand support for unique Malaysian cocoa and production for the halal export segment can boost the country’s reputation as a quality cocoa producer and grinder, says the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry.
Minister Datuk Seri Mah Siew Keong said efforts to boost production of value-added cocoa-based products are being intensified, including making the country Asia’s main chocolate producer.
“Malaysia has good potential to be known as a producer and processor of quality and internationally competitive cocoa, with support for the ‘Malaysian Cocoa’ brand and production for halal export markets especially in Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe,” he said in his opening speech at Malaysia Cocoa and Chocolate Day (MCCD 2016) here yesterday.
His speech was read by Malaysian Cocoa Board (MCB) Chairman Datuk Dr Marcus Makin Mojigoh.
Mah said in 2015, export earnings from cocoa and cocoa products totalled RM5.02 billion, the highest ever achieved by the country’s cocoa industry, on higher demand and good prices for cocoa products.
Main export destinations included the US, China, Japan, Egypt, Singapore, Indonesia and Thailand.
Malaysia is now the world’s seventh largest cocoa grinding country, with grindings at 187,695 metric tonnes in 2015.
The cocoa industry provided downstream and upstream jobs for 25,000 local residents, Mah added.
The three-day event beginning today at Mid Valley here, themed ‘Cocoa – More Than Words’, is held in conjunction with World Cocoa and Chocolate Day, which is celebrated every October.
At MCCD 2016, a new cocoa fertiliser jointly developed by the MCB and National Farmers Organisation was launched.
When met by reporters after the launch of MCCD 2016, Marcus said the 2020 target is to raise local cocoa production through replanting so as to meet 30 per cent of local grinding industry needs from 10 per cent currently. — Bernama