Dumping 1.5 tonnes of cucumbers daily growing concern for farmers

PASIR MAS, July 28 -- Two siblings are feeling the heat as 1.5 tonnes of cucumbers from their three-year-old plantation have been dumped daily for the past two weeks due to market limitations.

Nik Azani Nik Yaakub, 46, and his younger brother, Nik Azrin Nik Yaakub, 29, said their daily harvest totalled almost RM2,000.

“We have decided to give out the unsold cucumbers for free to anyone who wants them.

"We have been planting cucumbers and 'baby' cucumbers for the past three years and have noticed a decrease in demand since January this year. The situation has worsened resulting in the dumping recently," said Nik Azrin when met by reporters in Kampung Pulai, near here, today.

He said their cucumber harvest was sent to the Kelantan Rural Transformation Centre (RTC), Tunjong, in Kota Bharu every morning to be sold to three wholesalers. However, now dumping is also happening at the centre due to lack of buyers and this is coupled with market constraints due to travel restrictions to states such as Terengganu and Pahang.

"This situation has indirectly caused the price of cucumbers to drop sharply to only 50 sen to RM1 per kilogramme (kg) compared to RM4 per kg previously.

"We seem to be losing our livelihood because we are relying on crop yields. In fact, to solve this problem, we are trying to find other initiatives by selling our own cucumbers in the villages and doing business online but dumping still happens," he said.

Nik Azani, on the other hand, said that with no sales revenue, it was painful when he had to spend almost RM4,000 a month on fertilisers and pesticides to ensure that the cucumbers produced were of high quality.

According to him, the problem of vegetable dumping also happened to the Solok pepper crop that was cultivated before but they decided to stop it for a while since May due to poor market demand.

Meanwhile, Kelantan Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) director Wan Nora Wan Ahmad when contacted said that it provides services to help organise the marketing of produce to FAMA trading partners at RTCs and FAMA outlets in Kelantan besides making direct visits to farms.

"Besides that, FAMA also offers promotional sales directly from the farm to the Kelantan RTC lot to get a better return.

"We try to help farmers, and those who need marketing services from FAMA can contact the nearest FAMA office directly or the Kelantan FAMA operations room at 012-3684203 or 012-3680125," she added.

-- BERNAMA