Answer to Written Question PT052

QUESTION

Yang Berhormat Awang Lau How Teck

YANG BERHORMAT AWANG LAU HOW TECK asks MENTERI SUMBER-SUMBER UTAMA DAN PELANCONGAN to state what are the Government's plans to establish a national agricultural ecosystem that can be self-reliant within the next 10 years, including in terms of seeds, fertiliser, skilled labour, logistics and markets, so that the country's food security is truly free from geopolitical pressures and disruptions to global supply chains?

ANSWER

Yang Berhormat Menteri Sumber-Sumber Utama dan Pelancongan

As a measure to ensure the country's food security assurance, several steps have been and are being implemented, including:

1. The Ministry, through the departments under it, carries out monitoring of the main food categories that are the focus commodities of the industry. For commodities such as chicken, eggs and beef, monitoring is conducted quarterly to assess the level of sufficiency and availability in supermarkets and retail shops, including projections for the coming months. This effort not only supports the food security assurance strategy, but also enables potential disruptions in the supply chain to be identified and addressed earlier.
2. Strengthening all enterprise chains from the stage of seed production such as chicks, fish fry and crop seeds up to the stage of production of chicken, fish, paddy, vegetables and subsequently the processing stage. This strengthening initiative ensures that the country is not overly dependent on imports for chicken parent stocks, fish broodstocks, as well as paddy and vegetable seeds.
3. Implementing the Export Drive Initiative to encourage food enterprises in the country to increase their production not only for the domestic market but also for the export market. If many enterprises in the country succeed in penetrating export markets, this will enable the country not only to achieve self sufficiency status but also to become a Net Exporter of food, especially downstream products.
4. Identifying suitable seed sources in the country to increase productivity and production yield for every hectare, especially for rice production where the self-sufficiency level has only reached 8%.
5. Specifically for rice and beef, in addition to domestic production, the ministry is also, in cooperation with MoFE, exploring other joint venture opportunities to increase the country's self-sufficiency level.
6. In collaboration with BEDB, welcoming foreign direct investment to invest in food enterprise projects covering all enterprise chains from the production of seeds or the hatching of chicken, fish and shrimp seed, breeding, right up to the processing and marketing of the relevant products.

To ensure the quality and safety of agrifood products produced by local food processing companies, monitoring of premises hygiene and food product sampling are carried out for companies registered under the Department of Agriculture and Agrifood.

• Monitoring of premises hygiene and food product sampling is carried out every month for each home-based company and every 3 months for large-scale companies.
• Premises swab samples are analysed by the Terunjing Veterinary Laboratory, Department of Agriculture and Agrifood, MENTERI SUMBER-SUMBER UTAMA DAN PELANCONGAN, while food product samples are analysed by the Department of Scientific Services, Ministry of Health, for microbiological analysis.

Recognising that Food Security is not only the responsibility of the Ministry of Primary Resources but also the responsibility of various parties, whether from the Government, the private sector and also individual entrepreneurs themselves. This requires a whole nation approach to make this effort a success. This Ministry will continue to work closely with all stakeholders in achieving the aspiration of food security for Negara Brunei Darussalam.