Due to having too many fruit trees but very little sales, fruit farmer Ramli Che Ngah, 52, from Kelantan wants people to eat those fruits for free.
Ramli is begging for more visitors to come to his farm as he cannot stand the heartbreak of seeing his hard work go to waste as the fruits rot.
“Please come, it is fine even if you eat them for free. I am sad when I see my fruits rot away just like that. I want to sell them but sales aren’t good, in the end they are left to turn into fertilizer.”
Apparently, buyers wanted to buy his fruits for only 10 cents a kilogram which meant he will be making losses. He told Sinar Online,
“I need to pay my workers 30 cents but they want to buy at 10 cents a kilogram only. I might as well give the fruits out to my villagers.”
There are over 150 dokong trees, 100 rambutan trees, 20 rambai trees and an unknown amount of petai trees growing around the 1.6 hectare farm. Even then, the pay his employees receive is rather low.
Ramli has even gone to the Department of Agriculture and Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (FAMA) for help in exporting fruits from Kelantan to other states.
“We beg that government officials help lighten our burden by having various promotions including a program for eating fruits in farms.”
“It isn’t just me. In fact, 80 percent of villagers in this district own fruit farms and are facing the same issues as me every year.”
Farmers are having a tough time selling their fruits due to supermarket chains that are available everyday nowadays. These supermarkets sell fruits from their own farms while independent farmers like Ramli struggle to make sales.
So, road trip to Kelantan to help these villagers anyone?