An Agriculture Wholesale Centre which is being planned as a pilot project here is getting very close to being implemented.

Assistant Minister of Local Government and Food Industries, Datuk David Teng Lung Chi, after chairing the project committee's meeting at the Divisional Agriculture Office conference room here yesterday morning said that they had already decided on the hardware involved and is now left with the "software" to work on.

Teng considered the hardware as already in place as the Rejang Port Authority (RPA) godown would be used for the purpose. Only the cold storage and other related facilities are not installed yet.

He believed there would be no problem with the "software" which refers to the bringing of the players or products from the various food based industries into the fold, Teng pointed out.

For that they would bring in all the relevant agencies such as the Fishermen Association, Farmers Organisation and livestock associations into the committee as all the producers were under their wings, Teng said, adding once they were in, the centre was ready to go into business.

Apart from the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA) which is to play a leading role in the project, other departments including the Health Department, Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Agriculture, Marine Fisheries, RPA and Sarikei District Council are already members of the committee.

State FAMA Director, Rohizad Ridzwan who was also present at the meeting, said that once in operation the centre would provide a proper place for trading in agriculture and fisheries products.

Among the practices to be introduced at the centre would be a standard packaging system including the usage of proper baskets to maintain the quality of the products.

Tagging system would also be introduced to enable the authority to trace the origins of products should there be any problems such as breaching the Maximum Residue Level (MRL) for vegetables.

The centre would also try to make the pricing of goods very transparent although it was not their business to exert control on the pricing system, he added. Rohizad also expressed his confidence that the project would be welcome by the producers as he believed they stood to benefit a lot from it.

29 March 2005, The Borneo Post