Perak will soon be a production hub for premium MD2 pineapples with the inception of the Gopeng Pineapple (GoPine) plantation by Gopeng Bhd with collaboration from the state government.
Gopeng Bhd is a company involved with the management of farming projects, to name a few, the GoPine plantation, which is worth RM12 million.
According to the chairman cum chief executive officer of Gopeng Bhd, Dato’ Mohd Salleh Hashim, the GoPine plantation in overall is 1,000 acres wide, while planted areas cover only 250 acres so far.
“The entire project will tentatively be completed by next year, in which it’ll be one of the largest pineapple plantations in the northern states of Malaysia,” he said in his speech during the project’s launching ceremony at RTC Gopeng today (October 8).
Also present were Perak Menteri Besar, Dato’ Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu, his wife, Datin Nomee Ashikin Mohamed Radzi, and the State Executive Councillor for Agriculture, Fishery, Plantation and Food Security, Dato’ Abdul Yunus Jamahri, to grace the launch.
Three other programmes, which are the Farming Agro-Preneur Programme, Retail Entrepreneur and Agro-Commercial Programme, are branded under ‘GoPine Associate’, which are joint efforts with Agro Bank.
“These programmes are in line with the government’s effort in helping those under the B40 category to increase their source of income,” Mohd Salleh added.
Faizal commended GoPine plantation as part of the initiative to increase national food security level.
“In the midst of COVID-19 and its resulting closure of many economic sectors, we must realise how much we depend on imported food,” he urged. “Imagine one day if exporting countries ceased supply to us. That would be an adverse effect towards the nation.
“This is the reason we highly welcome Gopeng Bhd’s efforts,” Faizal expressed. “Hopefully, through the GoPine plantation, Gopeng and the state of Perak will be put forth as one of the largest exporters of premium MD2 pineapples.”
Chris Teh
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