Surge In Food Production
By Azlan Othman

Bandar Seri Begawan - There has been an increase in rice, livestock and poultry production in the Sultanate over the years.

But other main crop production like vegetables and fruits was down, statistics from the Department of Economic Planning and Development (JPKE) revealed.

A similar increasing trend was also reported in the production of forestry products such as 'Bakau' poles and charcoal but there was a decreasing trend in the production of round timber and sawn timber.

In terms of fishery production, local production has also increased, so too the capture industry (commercial and small scale), aquaculture (fish in cages, farm prawn and fresh water fish) and processing industry.

Rice production was up by three per cent from 851 metric tonnes in 2005 to 886 mt in 2006. Brunei still imports rice from Thailand. For cattle and goats, production rose by 45 per cent from 5.1 mt (2005) to 9.4 mt (2006) and 59 per cent from 1.5 mt (2005) to 3.7 mt respectively.

For poultry production like broilers chicken, it was up by 13 per cent from 15,419.2 in 2005 to 17,886.3 in 2006. Meanwhile, chicken egg production surged from 103.7 million in 2005 to 118.4 million last year, an increase of 12 per cent. Recently, the nation was struck by a shortage of eggs which resulted in a hike in egg prices, and the Agriculture Department under the Ministry of Industry and Primary Resources is taking steps to allow the import of eggs from a neighbouring country.

The department said it was aware of the shortage of eggs in the local market for over a week and attributed the shortage to technical problems, especially relating to the management faced by local egg producers at the moment.

Meanwhile, overall, there was an increase of 12.77 million in all agriculture commodities production last year compared to 2005. The agriculture commodities range from broilers to chicken eggs, meat products, fruits, vegetables and rice, Agricultural Department figures revealed.

The Department revealed that Brunei recorded 100 per cent self-sufficiency in chicken egg production and over 95 per cent self-sufficiency in broilers and day-old chicks. Vegetable production recorded almost 60 per cent self-sufficiency, fruits (20 per cent), rice (2.88 per cent), beef (1.44 per cent) and fresh milk (14.36 per cent).

A total of 9,500 tonnes of vegetables and 3,700 tonnes of fruits were produced locally last year. To ensure adequate supply in the local market, about 6,500 tonnes of vegetables and fruits were imported last year. Half of this came from Sabah and Sarawak alone. -- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin

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