As Peninsular Malaysia shuns pig farming, Sarawak rises as pork hub for Singapore
Pigs are seen at a farm in Kampung Valdor, Sungai Bakap, on June 24, 2019. — Picture by Sayuti Zainudin
Sunday, 15 Feb 2026 9:19 AM MYT
KUCHING, Feb 15 — As pig farming faces mounting pressure from disease, land competition, and royal decrees in Peninsular Malaysia, the East Malaysian state of Sarawak is rapidly cementing its position as the country's pork-producing hub, with a booming export business to Singapore.
Sarawak is currently the only state in Malaysia licensed to export live pigs to the republic. In 2024 alone, one farm, Green Breeder, shipped over 121,000 live pigs to Singapore, accounting for 8.2 per cent of the city-state's total pork imports.
The state now has ambitious plans to more than double its annual pig production from 350,000 in 2025 to 860,000 by 2030, targeting RM1 billion in exports, The Straits Times reported.
“We treasure pigs the most. So it’s easy for us to encourage people to make a living from them,” Sarawak’s Minister for Food Industry, Datuk Seri Stephen Rundi Utom, told The Straits Times, highlighting the deep cultural significance of pork among the state's non-Muslim majority, which includes indigenous and ethnic Chinese communities.
Sarawak's rise comes as the industry in Peninsular Malaysia faces an existential crisis.
In Selangor, once a major producer, the state government has announced it will stop issuing pig-farming licenses and aims to close all existing farms, following a directive from the Sultan to address environmental pollution.
Similar opposition, citing odour and water pollution, has emerged in Penang and Perak.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Security Datuk Chan Foong Hin noted that this growing opposition is partly due to competition for land use on the highly developed West Coast.
The trade in live pigs between Malaysia and Singapore was halted in 1999 following the devastating Nipah virus outbreak. Singapore only resumed live pig imports in 2017, and exclusively from Sarawak, which has since proven its resilience.
Rundi said the state successfully contained an African Swine Fever (ASF) outbreak in 2022 and has adopted modern, high-tech farming methods learned from Denmark, China, and Japan.
Green Breeder, the state's anchor farm, operates a high-biosecurity, closed-house system. Visitors are quarantined, vehicles are disinfected, and workers must shower and change into scrub suits.
Co-founder Veronica Chew noted that the farm's modern methods also eliminate the strong odours typically associated with pig farming.
With its industry in the peninsula shrinking, Malaysia as a whole has become more reliant on imports, with one-third of the country's pork supply now sourced from overseas. Sarawak's export-driven model stands in stark contrast, positioning it as a key player in regional food security.
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I told you so. Sarawak πππ
Singapore , per capita GDP USD $ 95, 000 per year, is a very, very different market from the local Malaysian market USD 11,000 per capita gdp.
ReplyDeleteUnless Malaysians are willing to pay Singapore prices for pork, Sarawak farmers are likely to thumb their noses at Malaysia domestic demand.
Denmark is a power house of pig farming with its produces exported to ALLOVER the world - rich & poor.
DeleteIf she has only targeting rich nationsbiying her pork, Denmark would be a nobody in pig farming.
Ooop… no need to educate a know-nothing surviving on family heirloom!
In Malaysia, you can buy Danish pork products, but they are definitely premium priced and aimed at the more affluent market.
DeleteRich or poor country , every country has at least a portion of their population who can afford finer products.
That is a totally different kettle of fish from the Malaysian mass market , as the proponents of Sarawak supplying pork to West Malaysia are suggesting.
Most Malaysian Non-Muslims buy their pork from local Wet Markets.
You think Sarawak pork suppliers would be interested in meeting Wet Market pork prices?
Please don't try to sell you Communist ideas here.. thry don't work.
marketing economy isn't Communist idea. It's pan human civilization!
DeleteSo, most Malaysian Non-Muslims buy their pork from local Wet Markets. & have u checks those pork prices in these wet markets?
Mfer, many of these prices r higher than those listed in the supermarkets that sell foreign imported porks. They command higher prices bcoz they taste better w/o those sowy smell.
ει₯ε΄δΈη₯η±³δ»·！or εθε΄δΈη₯θδ»·！
Brown Flesh Vibrator with ED says: Singapore? With majority of population pork consuming people, why they not have the biggest pig farm in the world at one of their islets? With the might of SGD why can't they rent one of those Riau islets for biggest pig farming? simply because... (ah no need to write. may amount to 3R)
ReplyDeleteED?
DeleteErectile Dysfunction, right?