This issue came to the fore during a business matching session, held between local importing companies and farmers at the Ministry of Primary Resources and Tourism (MPRT) yesterday.

The session, one of the initiatives of the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood under the MPRT to support its Strategic Plan 2016-2020, aimed at encouraging and providing an opportunity for commercial importers registered with the department to procure vegetables and fruits from local farmers.

It also sought to reduce fruit and vegetable imports into the country and the risks associated with products coming from abroad.

The business matching session was attended by importers and farmers in Brunei Darussalam.

Additionally, the event served as a platform to discuss how to improve food safety and quality through the introduction of Good Agriculture Practices (GAP) as one of the conditions required for importing vegetables and fruits into the country as well as to help local farmers find markets for their produce.

Layla Syaznie binti Abdullah Lim, an official from the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood who briefed the participants of the session on ‘Biosecurity’, said there has been an increase in the import of fruits into the country. Last year, Brunei imported some 7.95 million kilogrammes of tropical fruits compared to 7.83 million kilogrammes in 2015.

Meanwhile, local production stood at 5.79 million kilogrammes in 2016, a decline compared to the 6.26 million kilogrammes produced in the previous year. This includes some 1,407 metric tonnes (mt) of coconut, 307mt of old coconut and 1,638mt of banana.

The country’s fruit imports include durian, rambutan, mango, watermelon, banana, guava, rock melon, pineapple, papaya, old coconut, and calamansi and the majority comes from Sabah and Sarawak.

In case of vegetables, Brunei’s imports declined last year to 3.76 million kilogrammes from 3.41 million kilogrammes in 2015, while local production rose to 8.68 million kilogrammes in 2016 from 7.55 million kilogrammes in the previous year.

Imported vegetable fruits include French beans, eggplant, bottle gourd, Thai chilli, bitter gourd, tomato, baby corn, bell pepper, pumpkin, winged bean, and cucumber.

As for leafy vegetables, import declined to 2.06 million kilogrammes in 2016 from 2.17 million kilogrammes, while local production fell to 5.17 million kilogrammes last year compared 5.33 million kilogrammes in 2015.

Imported leafy vegetables include lettuce, cabbage, Pakis (fern), bean sprout, spinach, Lemiding (fiddlehead fern) and Daun Bawang (leek).

Brunei also produced 543mt of red chilli, 498mt of spinach and 568mt of eggplant last year.

Meanwhile, Hafizah Nor Haziyah binti Abdullah, another official who touched on agricultural development in Brunei, said that at the community agricultural farming areas, there are about 138 local vegetable and 10 fruit farmers in the Brunei-Muara District, five vegetable and 23 fruit farmers in Tutong District, five vegetable and eight fruit farmers in Belait District and three vegetable and four fruit farmers in Temburong District.

Farmers in the Brunei-Muara District produced some 7,712mt of vegetables worth $19.5 million last year while Belait District farmers produced 2,327mt worth $6.60 million, Tutong District (3,681mt; $8.1 million) and Temburong District (231mt; $0.60 million).