KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 27 — Consumers will not have to pay more for their greens during the fasting month of Ramadan, as Malaysia is expected to see more sunny days ahead.
Vegetable farmers are anticipating better harvest due to the warmer weather, which they said will ensure a continuous supply of vegetables during the festive period.
Federation of Vegetable Farmers Association secretary Tan Chee Kiong said prices of vegetables will remain low for the next few weeks as demand for vegetables usually declines during Ramadan.
“Vegetables will grow faster since there is more sunlight now but due to the vegetable surplus, the prices will drop.
“Even now, the vegetable prices are still low due to oversupply,” Tan said, explaining that the vegetable surplus occurred due to closure of markets for several days during the Chinese New Year celebrations.
“Only the price of bitter gourd is quite good, but Malay people seldom use it during the festive season.
“Leafy vegetables like sawi, spinach and water spinach (kangkung) usually have very poor demand during Ramadan.
“However, the demand for lowland vegetables such as cucumbers, long beans, eggplants and chillies will increase in the days leading to Hari Raya Aidilfitri,” Tan said, when contacted by Malay Mail recently.
Ramadan is expected to begin this Saturday (March 1) while Hari Raya Aidilfitri is expected to fall on March 31.
In 2023, farmers in Cameron Highlands reportedly threw away nearly 1,000 tonnes of vegetables such as cucumbers, tomatoes, sawi and collard greens due to poor uptake at markets during Ramadan and the long Hari Raya holidays.
A similar situation occurred last year, prompting several farmers’ associations to appeal to charity groups to take the unsold vegetables away for free.
During Ramadan, vegetable farms also grapple with a shortfall of workers as the majority of Muslim foreign labourers from Bangladesh and Indonesia return to their homeland and resume work only after Hari Raya Aidilfitri.
However, Tan said that situation is unlikely to occur this year as Myanmar nationals now make up the bulk of labourers on vegetable farms, especially in the lowlands.
Wary of drought and pest
As Malaysia approaches the tail-end of the north-east monsoon, the country will be seeing lesser cloud cover and consequently, reduced rainfall between now and mid-March.
Malaysian Meteorological Department (MetMalaysia) director-general Mohd Hisham Mohd Anip said most places in the Peninsular will receive less rainfall over the next few weeks since the monsoon peaked in the Peninsular during November and December 2024.
So, while farmers are grateful for the generous sunshine, they are also wary of the possibility of a drought if the hot spells continue unabated.
Former Cameron Highlands Agriculture Association chairman and organic farmer Ng Tien Khuan said farmers in the highlands are worried that a pest outbreak may hit leafy vegetables if the weather becomes too hot.
“Vegetables in the highlands are sensitive to temperature. Extremely hot weather will encourage the spread of pests, which will particularly target the leafy vegetables like sawi, bayam and kangkung.
“Unless there is a major outbreak, the supply chain will not be affected because leafy vegetables also thrive in lowlands and the farms there can still supply to markets.
“But, for highland farmers, this still is a big loss,” he explained.
Lowland farmers like Tan, meanwhile, are already bracing for the prospect of a drought in the coming weeks as water levels at the irrigation ponds in their farms begin to dip.
“The first three months of the year are usually hot but from what we are seeing now, a drought might occur,” Tan, who operates 180-acres of vegetable farm in Tangkak, Johor, said.