KOTA KINABALU: Sabah has always been vigilant in screening the entry of food products into the state, said its Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Junz Wong.
This comes following detection of bird flu in chickens in Tuaran on Aug 3.
“We have been stringent in allowing poultry products and fruits into the state to prevent the spread of diseases.
“However, it cannot be denied that there are people who smuggled items in. During operations, we even seized roosters meant for cockfighting events," he said, after the launch a seminar on tropical fruits, themed “The Next Golden Crop for Sabah” here today.
The seminar was organised by Sabah Agriculture Department and Society of Agriculture Scientists.
Meanwhile, Wong added that he did not discount the possibility that smuggled poultry could be one of the contributing factors that led to the outbreak of the bird flu virus in Tuaran recently.
“We are still investigating (the source of the infection and the result of the samples taken from the infected chickens are) not out yet,” he said.
As for poultry exports, Wong said Brunei has so far halted all imports of poultry and fertilisers from the state.
Despite that, he assured that the situation was still under control and there has been no report of human transmission.
On the event, Wong said the state government was optimistic in turning tropical fruits into the main exports based on its experience of turning cocoa and oil palm as Sabah's golden crops.
In 2016, he said the global market value of fruits were worth US$10 billion, in Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) it was US$1.8 billion, with Malaysia only contributing US$74.6 million.
“We have to give our full commitment in working on allocating lands, workforce, time and entrepreneurship to make this happen.
“I was told about 3.6 acres out of 5.2 acres of the agricultural land in Sabah has been identified for tropical fruits.
“Supply of fruits are adequate to meet domestic demand but we are looking into potential export of starfruit, pineapple, rambutan, durian, pamelo, papaya, mangosteen, jackfruit among other.” Wong added.
Also present was Sabah Agriculture Department director Idrus Shafie.