Foreigners Continue To Gain From Local Herbal Resources

KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) -- The growing awareness on the need for a healthy lifestyle has brought about the development of various herbal based products that are easily available in the market under various brands and packaging.
Unfortunately, given a closer look, most of these pharmaceutical products either come from foreign countries or are produced by foreign companies operating in this country and using local herbal plants as the main ingredients.
While the manufacturers of these products have been fully exploiting the local herbal plants and in the process making huge profits for years, not many local entrepreneurs have seriously entered into the sector.
This has been despite the fact that herbal plants have been available in abundance locally, indeed right at the front lawn of most homes.
Now, there is a dumping of these herbal products from Europe, US, and several other Asian countries such as China, India and Thailand in the local market.
This situation has raised the concern of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi so much so where during the recent tabling of the Ninth Malaysia Plan, he pointed out that the agriculture sector was not confined to the production of food alone but also pharmaceuticals.
He said there was no reason why Malaysia should continue to import the herbal products which form a billion dollar market while the country is rich with various species of herbal plants with medicinal properties.
Responding to the challenge from Abdullah, a herbal based company, Gitex (M) Sdn Bhd recently took the initiative to organise a workshop aimed at raising the awareness of the value of herbs and the golden opportunity that they present to those wishing to enter the industry.
Chief executive officer of Gitex, Safinah Yaakob said the workshop was aimed at providing guidance and help to young entrepreneurs in the herbal industry, especially in the area of marketing and rebranding of their products which have been in the past produced in small-scale or on a part-time basis.
"During the workshop, we tried to match the entrepreneurs with parties keen on helping them to market their products easily," she told Bernama recently.
Participants at the workshop who all gave the thumbs up for the programme said that it was a very good platform to establish herbal entrepreneurs as it was organised by the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) with very good networking with Mara, the SMI Bank, and the Malaysia External Trade Development Corporation, among others.
The director general of FRIM Datuk Dr Abdul Razak Ali said that the lack of effective promotion on local herbal products has opened up the space for foreign products to monopolise the market.
"Therefore, there should be more aggressive promotion of local products and the mass production of local herbal products would also contribute to the country's economy," he said.
Some participants at the workshop also hoped that the government would give attention to developing more Bumiputera entrepreneurs in the industry.
One participant, Zainal Abidin, 55, also expressed hope that the workshop would be held regularly and nationwide so that more new entrepreneurs could be roped in while the existing ones would learn more about the trade.
Zainal grows the "Misai Kuching" herbal plant in a farm in Batu Gajah, Perak and supplies his produce to several manufacturers who produce herbal based health products.
Besides the Misai Kucing, he also cultivates the Kacip Fatimah, Tongkat Ali, and Aloe Vera plants in his farm.
He hopes to expand his farm in the future, with the help of loan from a bank.
Another participant, Ayu, said that the workshop generated a lot of ideas towards rebranding the products of her company. She said the rebranding would be able to give a more competitive edge to her company products.
All participants also agreed that more of the workshops should be held to bring forth many more entrepreneurs in the industry which would in turn help generate economic growth from a source that has long remained untapped.