MalayMail-July 8
Hardly any Malaysian cuisine can be cooked without onions, making the tubers one of the most expensive food items the country pays for. Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama) chairman Aminuddin Zulkipli said Malaysians consume close to 750,000 tons of onions a year, citing the recent Kajian Kepenggunaan Agro-Makanan Segar study. To put it visually, that’s as heavy as seven fully loaded aircraft carriers! Last year, Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu told the Dewan Rakyat that Malaysia imported 687,000 metric tons of onions in 2022 — including 38,000 tons of shallots. Going by that figure, Mohamad Sabu said the average Malaysian eats about 1.2kg of shallots alone. “The consumption of onions in Malaysia is growing rapidly especially after the Covid-19 pandemic. “However, we expect the demand to grow steadily with no drastic spikes,” he told Malay Mail, when interviewed recently. Malaysia’s onion imports crossed RM1 billion in 2023 and came close to RM1.5 billion last year, according to figures published by the Department of Statistics Malaysia (DoSM). The imports comprise large onions, shallots and garlic. Aminuddin said the cost of onion imports jumped by 67 per cent in the last five years — from RM887.3 million for 479,746 metric tonnes of onions in 2020 to RM1,482.9 million in 2024. China is the largest supplier of onions to Malaysia, accounting for 46.3 per cent of all onions imported by the country. India and Pakistan control around one-third of onions imported by Malaysia, contributing 19.2 per cent and 15.4 per cent respectively. The remaining sources include the Netherlands (five per cent), Myanmar (four per cent), Thailand (between four to five per cent) and several other countries.
Earlier this year, Mohamad Sabu said Malaysia could offset RM300 million — nearly a third of its overall RM1 billion onion import bill — if the country can produce 30 per cent of shallots locally. Read more at:
