KUCHING: The market value of the herbal industry in Malaysia is expected to reach RM15 billion this year.
Deputy Minister of Natural Resources and Environment Datuk Seri Dr James Dawos Mamit said this increase in market value was due to better understanding of locals on the importance of natural medicine in maintaining health.
Among the herbs identified as of high value are Tongkat Ali, Kacip Fatimah, Misai Kuching, Mas Cotek, Pegaga, Serai Wangi, Mengkudu, Asam Gelugur, Peria Katak, Temulawak, Gaharu, Medang Sarsi dan Kelapa Dara.
“This is further supported by the development, safety and rebranding of local herb products in the local market. The market value of local herbs industry has the potential of reaching RM29 billion by 2020,” he said in his text speech read by the ministry’s special officer Paul Ponar Sinjeng who represented him at the closing of the Agro Herbal Seminar for Mambong yesterday.
Dawos, who is also Mambong MP, said he wished to see the parliamentary constituency becoming the herbal hub for Sarawak.
He elaborated that Sarawak is rich in plant biodiversity which had potential to be tapped and developed and that the state can be the supplier of herbs and traditional and complementary medicine.
Looking at these market values, he urged those involved in agro based industry to participate in the industry and to tap these potential, especially local farmers.
He also revealed that in the peninsula, 1,500 acres of land had been planted with various herbs that were demanded in the market as alternative and complementary medicine but there is none in Sarawak as yet.
“There are herbs that are planted but in small holdings and yet to have a full economic potential but this can be changed and we must get the ball rolling,” he said.
He also hoped that the seminar can be the stepping stone to start farmers with those herbs that can be marketed and were of use in the traditional medicine.
Dawos revealed that there are many of these Sarawak herbs which had potential and have a good future as they were plans to make it one of the commodities apart from palm oil.
He also urged the natives – the Dayaks – Ibans and Bidayuhs and the rest to be involved in identifying herbs from the wild that had been used traditionally by their ancestors and those that can be used to treat sickness or as health supplement.
The Dayaks needed to follow what the Malays, Chinese and Indians had done and who had used traditional medicines to treat the sick, he added.
“The natives of Sarawak and even Sabah need to be registered as practitioners and users of traditional medicine in line with the Traditional and Complementary Medicine Act that was passed by parliament last year,” he said.
He also said that there was a need for the Ibans and Bidayuhs to patent their findings and their ways of using traditional medicines.