The Satsuma orange sounds interesting. Wonder how's the fruit taste like (sweet) compared to the Chinese Mandarin Orange (Lou Kam). Shall chec with my nursery supplier, maybe get a a few for trial as I had not been doing well on my trial of Limau Kipas & Perut. My problem with lime is that it died of drought when it's new, but once established, it should be well. Next problem is pest. Leaf miners & weevils & fruit flies. Had a tree infested with the black fungus. I read the Satsuma is drought tolerant but easily died on over watering.

Co-incidentally I had started on some mangoes recently. Had a Super Manila Sweet & Apple mangoes on my trial and it had fruited. Made some grafts and recently planted a few. Just got in some ChokAnan ( they are naming this Langkawi Mangoes :-) ), Thong Dam aka Black Gold, Nam Doc Mai aka Water Lily, Madu.

Would like to get my hands on Harumanis & R2E2

What do you think of these varieties on doing in Sabah? Interior, hill, rain fed.

Mr Farmer:

The Satsumas, if allowed to dry out sufficiently prior to harvesting, are very sweet and nearly seedless. Most will have about 1 seed per fruit, some will have 2-3 seeds. If the land is sandy, or has good drainage, then Satsumas should do quite well. They are cold hardy, but love the warmth (i.e. will keep flowering and fruiting if it is warm), and have a droopy growing habit (low hanging fruits). Train well, and it will bear massive amounts of fruit.



As for mangoes, the Manila and Apple are supposed to be among the best bearers regionally, as in they have a consistent production each year. Especially Apple mangoes, which fruit all year round, even when other mangoes cultivars are not in season. Taste wise, Manila tends to have a sour undertone compared to Apple even when ripe, but because Apple mangoes have thin skin, they will not store well. Usually they have to be consumed within 3-4 days after plucking, so Apple mangoes will be more suitable for local market. In addition, you must harvest Apple mangoes at a precise ripeness standard, otherwise it will be very sour. If harvested ripe, it will be very sweet.

Thai mangoes, like Chok Anan, Thong Dam, Nam Doc Mai etc. are also heavy bearers, but require a very distinct dry season in order to flower, followed by a moderate rainfall season while in fruit. Heavy rainfalls are bad, because the fruitlets can fall, or the resulting fruits will become insipid (bland tasting). In fact, the fruits taste best when there is an approaching dry season just before harvest. Since flowers are produced on new branch ends, it is important to time the pruning of old branches with the local weather pattern in order to maximize fruit production and quality. Some, like the Chok Anan, can be trained to bear two times are year, or more. Among mangoes, Thai mango trees are the most trainable and adaptable.

Harumanis is primarily a northern variety, although it was first developed in Selangor. Very fragrant, but taste wise still missing a beat. Some people say there is a mild turpentine taste to it, don't know lar. But it is in high demand, and it does fetch really high farmgate prices.

R2E2 is Australian, mostly grown in Queensland. I'm less familiar with this variety compared to its parent, but from what I've read about it, the fruits are bloody huge (nearly 1kg each), and high demand for export market. Thick skinned, stores extremely well. It is also supposed to be quite disease resistant, especially since its original parent is Kensington Pride. However, there are some reports indicating that it is a biennial bearer, i.e. one year high production, next year low. Nonetheless, this is among the fastest bearing mango variety available, even more so than Thai mangoes. Under ideal conditions, it is not surprising to see grafted R2E2 seedlings bearing fruits within the first year of planting.

Right now, there are a lot of nurserymen grafting and selling this variety in Malaysia. I guess there is a real push to grow R2E2.

Taste wise... well it depends on the consumer's taste buds really. I personally do not like mangoes of the Indian origin (i.e. those that are round, blush pink on shoulder, inherently large, and mostly produced in temperate countries), as I find the taste rather flat and insipid. I prefer the more complex flavors of Southeast Asian origins, especially Khiaw Savoy and Nam Doc Mai (i.e. those that are pronouncedly elongated, normally plain yellow or green, and produced in tropical monsoon countries). Some, like the Manila, even have surprising "spicy" notes.



Now for your planting area, which is hilly and interior, I'm afraid there is more to it when it comes to mangoes. Most varieties of Southeast Asian origins are highly adaptable, as long as the soil isn't heavy clay. Soil pH should be acidic, but within the range of 6-7; slightly alkaline soils can also be cultivated, if treated with humus and appropriate soil conditioners. Look at the areas in Malaysia with large mango cultivation; Sitiawan in Perak, most parts of Malacca, etc. These are areas with sandy loam soils, even sandy soils. I've even came across a farmer in Sitiawan that cultivated mangoes on ex-tin mining land; his mango trees are not only highly productive, but his mangoes are rated among the best in Malaysia.

Hilly areas not exceeding a few hundred feet above sea level should be fine, but flat land would be more practical especially when it comes to harvesting. Make sure the drainage is good, because even for Southeast Asian origin mangoes, they will need to experience a distinct dry spell/water stress in order to initiate flowering. But more importantly, the drought condition will cause biochemical changes in the trees which are necessary to ensure that fruitlets that form do not fall off later on. Do note that only 1% of mango flowers become fruitlets, and of these, between 10%-35% actually end up as marketable fruit.

Remember that a mango tree has to work hard and struggle a bit in order to bear good fruits; a pampered, lazy mango tree will either produce lousy fruits, or no fruits at all.

Very nice sharing Michael J

Spoke with FAMA (local), they are collecting only ChokAnan & Harumanis (only).

You are right on the Apple Mango, we tasted it ripe on tree as it was trial, it was very sweet, but skin being too thin. Might not be practical to send it to the Market.

The Manila, again ripe on tree is big & very sweet, but with a citrus / tangerine flavor ( that make us salivate).

R2E2 are selling at a very high price at the moment in the nursery, I may have to wait till the price drops lower. It's suppose to have a very good shelve life, very high in demand.

I think Mangoes are highly adaptive. Hope they shall do well in the hills.

Not surprised with FAMA's response, since these are the two major export mango varieties from Malaysia. In fact, a lot of marketing effort is being put into harumanis by MOA.

Ahahaha.... yea, that is a real problem with apple mangoes. It is actually very good, but the thin skin is a major stumbling block for transporting. Unless you can wrap it with styrofoam casing, which is unpractical also since apple mangoes don't actually fetch very high prices locally either.

As for Manila, yep, that's quite a good way to describe it. A citrus flavor undertone. Oddly though, I haven't seen much of it outside of Sabah. Maybe there's some potential for local distribution?

Well, R2E2 is something of a "hot" item now in Malaysia. Not only R2E2, but other Indian-origin mangoes such as Irwin, Bowen etc. as well. What you could do, maybe, is get 1-2 larger plants, plant them first. Then in a couple of months after they are established enough, do grafting onto rootstock. Use a cleft graft.

Since you have apple mango, you could germinate the seeds and use them as rootstock; Indian-origins tend to take well to apple mango rootstock. Otherwise, you may use Manila also, since many grower in the US use Manila as rootstock over there. A third option, not sure if it would be easy for you to find, is to use the turpentine mango as rootstock (a.k.a. bacang/macang). They are abundant in Sarawak, not sure about in Sabah. This is by far the best species to use as rootstock, but it isn't always available. Aside from that, you can use egg mango (mangga telor/mempelam), which is a variety of mango that produces large amounts of egg-sized mangoes in huge bunches. Normally people take the unripe green fruits and make pickles out of them. This is a good rootstock if you want faster maturing trees, but it will come at the cost of lower cumulative fruit yields (no idea why, might be my next research focus).

Now I do have to place some caution here: there are very few detailed studies about the effects of mango rootstock on yield performance. Thus far, only two are best known: a 21-year study from India involving 8 varieties as rootstock, and "Alphonso" as graft; and the other recent one from Australia, which involved 64 varieties of rootstock, with "Kensington Pride" as graft. There's quite a bit of technicality involved with both studies, but generally speaking, you should always graft a vigorous variety onto a vigorous rootstock, and not onto a less vigorous one. There were exceptions to the rule, and so far no further studies have been made to find out why. However, that being said, and knowing Kensington Pride/R2E2, you will be having a very vigorous and high production tree, which means your best bet for rootstock will be Apple mango or egg mango.


Speaking of apple mango, I am actually looking for mature, producing trees grown under orchard settings in Peninsular Malaysia. I know of one in Melaka, another few in Sabah... but otherwise, most are single trees grown in somebody's backyard. Anyone with any clue?

hi all

my land is ready for clearing of rubber trees. as i am new to owning a piece of land in malaysia, the contractor told me that currently there are no workers available as it is Hari Raya and i have to wait after the Muslim holiday to chop down the trees and terrace the land. is there such thing in this industry?

i am a bit skeptical as there's a piece of land next to us which has been just bought by my neighbour whom has already owned 2 plots of land at the area. according to the contractor, the land bought by the neighbour can only be accessible though my land and the same contractor is appointed by the neighbour to carry out chopping of trees and terracing the land. i am thinking, maybe the neighbour told the contractor to hold off the activities till the land title transfer is fully completed so that the contractor can clear both my land and neighbour's newly acquired land together?

anyone can share your insight? should i appoint another contractor? i am worried to offend the local people there if i withdraw the contractor.

http://www.thestar.com.my/Business/SME/201...nghooithestarc/

Thanks for the information. I shall definitely keep it in mind. At the present am sourcing rootstock from random seeds (whatever I can laid my hands on).

R2E2 cost about 40 to 50 at the moment. My nursery supplier suggested I take 1 and graft from it. Maybe I shall do it on my next shipment.

http://loanstreet.com.my/learning-centre/G...aysia-Explained

What do you guys think about this? Especially about its potential impact on raw materials producers like farmers and agriculturist.

I'm not sure if I'm understanding it correctly, but it seems as though raw materials producers are at the short end of the stick... this despite being classified as "zero-rated supplies". I wonder if the taxes on items such as fertilizers, machines, sprinklers etc. all can be claimed back as input taxes, and still the producer has to pay 6% GST to the government anyhow for every item sold.

So I'm just thinking, if say a farmer produces 10mt of vegetables, and sells them on to a manufacturer or retailer at RM10/kg. The farmer pays RM0.60 per kg as GST, but the retailer pays no tax at all, and in fact can claim back the RM0.60 the FARMER paid for GST as input tax. In addition, the farmer cannot claim back the GST incurred on them for the farm inputs. So then, that means that farmers are going to be doubly impacted, no?

Hope somebody here can shed more light about this.... I'm rather confused about it all, and the government websites are not clear about such things.


*Oh wait, I just found the stand of the government on the farming community's welfare:

http://gst.customs.gov.my/en/ib/Pages/ib_ss.aspx

The specific section is as follows:

Flat-Rate Scheme (FRS)

This scheme is to allow certain category of approved sectors (e.g. example farmers) to get some form of compensation of the GST paid on their inputs even though they are not GST registrant.

(i) Farmers will charge a flat rate addition to the businesses.
(ii) Farmers can keep the flat rate addition collected and do not have to submit the return.
(iii) Farmers are not allowed to claim input tax credit.
(iv) The buyer can claim input tax credit on the flat rate addition paid to the farmer and must be supported by invoice.

Hmm... ok, so if I understand this correctly now, farmers do not pay any GST, but can charge a flat rate additional to the prices of their products.

Now this sounds rather unfair to me. The reason being that market forces being what they are, the big buyers and retailers will inadvertently "force" the farmers to absorb the input tax of their farming inputs. I think it would be far better for farmers if they could claim back GST on farm inputs. That way, it would be fairer to them since regardless of how market forces work, they will still be guaranteed compensation on part of their input costs.

Eg. if the production of 10mt of vegetables uses say 1ton of fertilizer, and the input tax on fertilizer is RM6,000... would it make more sense for the farmer to claim back the input tax of RM6,000 or charge an extra RM6,000 on his/her farm product? For instance, if 10mt of vegetable normally fetches RM30,000... would the big buyers be willing to pay an extra RM6,000 and claim it back later? Or tell the farmer 'sell to me at former prices, or I get it elsewhere', then claim any extra cost from gov?

In addition, it is unclear how much is the flat-rate charges a farmer is allowed to charge. If it can cover the input tax, maybe ok lah if assuming the big buyers play fair. But what if it doesn't? The thing is with farming, and I'm sure most of you here are well acquainted with this, there are hell lots of inputs. Fuel, feed, fertilizer, pesticide, weedicide, healthcare, professional services from vets (if animal farming), farm equipments, and many other services and labor inputs. You add up all the taxes in these inputs, how much more does the farmer have to pay then?

If normally the margins from farming is about 20%, the GST from inputs will knock-off 6% points from their profit margins, i.e. the nett margin is only 14%. Wah.... like that, no point growing food for country de. Let us all become manufacturers only.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Jul 15 2014, 02:15 PM

I'm assuming farmers buy things (fertilizer, animal feed etc.) so I presume they will claiming for that.

Hi Wodenus,

The specific section on Special Schemes pertaining to farmers states quite clearly that farmers CANNOT claim input tax credits, but only allowed to charge a flat rate additional to their products.

I just found out that specific section too.... what are your thoughts about this?

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Jul 15 2014, 02:21 PM

It's for businesses that have yet to register with customs for GST to get back compensation for input tax paid. You cannot claim input tax if you do not register your business with the customs department of Malaysia. Only business exceeding RM 500,000 in revenue is required (and mandatory) to register with the GST program.

Ok, so for a business that does not generate RM500,000 in revenues there is no need to register under GST program?

So if say I have an agribusiness growing bananas on 10 acres of land, and a revenue of RM480,000 a year, I would not be obligated to register under GST program, but I will still have to bear input tax for farming materials. Is this right?

But if my acreage increases to 15 acres, and I start generating revenues of RM720,000 a year, I am therefore obligated to register under GST program, but this allows me to claim compensation for input tax paid over farming materials. Correct?

Still trying to get my head around this.....

while you you guys are discussing about the GST issue...just wanna ask what is the prospect of growing Tuhau (E.coccinea) ?

Ah ok ok.... I've come across a writeup from NBC that has helped clear some questions.

Most agriculture businesses will fall under zero-rated supply group, and if they register under GST program, even with revenues below RM500,000 yearly, they will be eligible to claim input tax credit.

Among farm produce listed as zero-rated supply:
(i) Paddy, fresh or chilled vegetables, and certain preserved vegetables
(ii) Livestock, livestock supplies and poultry - live animals and unprocessed meats
(iii) Fish - live, fresh, frozen or dried
(iv) Eggs

Oddly, fruits are not listed as part of the zero-rated supply group. Does this then mean that fruit farmers will be impacted by GST?

I am producing salted eggs from scratch.
so do I counted as zero rated? since salted eggs are processed...

Hi ah_suknat:

No idea about this... will ask the opinion of the ginger research team at UNIMAS. Get back to you with their answer in due time.

About salted eggs, that's the thing. It is not very clearly defined. My impression is that as long as there's value-adding, then need to charge GST. But then again, belacan, dried fruits, margarine, salted fist etc. all zero-rated lei.... but things like fresh milk all not included wor.

This post has been edited by Michael J.: Jul 15 2014, 05:00 PM

Under RM 500,000 is voluntary registration. But not being registered for the GST program will put you under severe disadvantage - simply because your clients will not be able to claim input tax.

Give you a scenario, say you are planting mango and it is an essential ingredient for a canned fruit manufacturer. If you're not registered, the client would have to seek elsewhere for a supplier that is registered so he can claim input tax.

So whether a business like it or not, circumstances will force businesses to register for the GST program.

and while we're in the subject of whether fruits will be exempted, here's an interesting read:
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com/category/...t-not-lobsters/

note that the article is dated so not sure if the problem has been rectified, but it does prove a point that the gst program itself needs more refinement.

Very true, Icehart. Thanks for your input on this matter. Hopefully those of us who aren't clear about GST (like myself) are now better educated about it.