Vanilla Producer Signs Buy-Back Agreement With Felda

March 17, 2009 15:25 PM

Vanilla Producer Signs Buy-Back Agreement With Felda

KUANTAN, March 17 (Bernama) -- Rentak Timur Sdn Bhd, a vanilla producer in the East Coast Economic Region (ECER), has signed a buy-back agreement with Felda to extend its expertise in the farming of vanilla plants.

Its chief executive officer Syed Isa Syed Alwi said with the agreement, the company has the rights to buy back all the vanilla green beans from Felda settlers at a specified price before processing them into dried vanilla pods and other forms of finished products to be exported.

Syed Isa said to date, the company has established joint ventures with 150 contract farmers with more than 60 hectares of vanilla plant throughout the country.

"Under the contract farming, we will supply vanilla plants at between RM10 and RM14 each, depending on the quality and then buy back the harvest for between RM35 and RM50 per kg," he said in a statement today.

Syed Isa said with just 0.2 acre of land, 1,000 vanilla plants could be cultivated to generate an income of RM60,000 per year.

The company, he said, was targeting 3,000 to 5,000 farmers to participate in the project by next year.

The vanilla plant from Rentak Timur comes from the Vanilla Planifolia Andrews genus, which is known to be of high quality and suitable for commercial farming.

The company owns a greenhouse at Lanchang, Temerloh, that functions as a seedling and nursery centre for vanilla and can host about 200,000 plants at any one time.

Global demand for natural vanilla is estimated at 2,000 metric tonnes per year. It is a popular flavour used in desserts, cakes, confectionery, ice cream products and one of the main ingredients in perfumes, cigars and liquors.

-- BERNAMA