Nine-year research shows palm sugar perfect alternative to cane counterpart
KUCHING: If Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) could have its way Sarawak may be producing sugar from sago flour.
In fact, the university has proposed to the state government to consider the use of sago flour as an alternative to sugarcane because research it has carried out shows sago flour has what it takes to compete against sugar cane.
According to the university’s vice chancellor Prof Datuk Dr Mohamad Kadim Suaidi, Unimas management officials made the proposal during a courtesy visit to Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg last Wednesday.
During the visit, the officials briefed the Chief Minister on the findings of their nine-year research which included the commercial potential of sago and nipah-based products, sugar in particular.
Kadim said, “Back in 2010, the current Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg was the Housing and Urbanisation Minister, and it was he who officiated at the launch of our own Centre of Excellence in Sago Palm Research (CoESAR) at Unimas.
“The main objective of establishing the research institute was to intensify research and development (R&D) efforts on the commodity. Therefore, on Wednesday we went to update him on the progress of our nine-year research,” he said.
Kadim further said, “Our senior researchers have devised several innovative methods on how to produce sugar out of sago flour. Despite both being equally sweet substances, sago flour-based sugar was reported to contain more health benefits as opposed to sugar sourced from sugar cane.
“Hence, we have proposed to the state government to consider the production of sago flour-based sugar as an alternative to sugar cane-based sugar since we have a lot of sago resources in Sarawak.
“Rather than producing only sago flour as a product from sago plantation, we could also add in sago-based sugar for export,” he told the New Sarawak Tribune after the signing ceremony of MoU between Unimas and Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) at the university last Friday.
According to Kadim, the team of researchers led by Prof Dr Kopli Bujang had also come up with a way to produce feedstock out of sago leaves for animals like cows and goats.
“An average sago tree can produce up to 20 or 30 leaves. Typically, these leaves would be thrown away because they are seen as without any valuable use.
“However, our team of researchers has developed a mechanism of producing feedstock out of the leaves and we are now currently working on the patterns.”
Apart from sago flour sugar, there is another type of sugar that is uniquely produced from nipah leaves known as “gula apong” and is a local favourite.
It is commonly used as an additive for food products like ice cream and sweets. However, there is little awareness on the potential diversification of palm sugar into healthier products such as energy drinks.
“Similarly, we conducted research on nipah, too. Our researchers managed to produce an energy drink from nipah, which has even higher market value than its sugar which sells at RM6 per kg.
“If we were to convert a kilogramme of nipah palm sugar into energy drinks for distribution, the potential return in revenue would be tenfold, and would potentially fare well as an export item,” he continued.
According to him, stages such as laboratory research and prototype production have since been completed. What remains a challenge is to find out the real market potential of the commercialisation of nipah and sago, which would need positive reception from investors.
“The Chief Minister was certainly impressed and he has suggested that the research include collaboration with the smallholders in Mukah, Igan and Dalat.
“We will prepare a proposal, and we do hope that we will get the support of the state government,” Kadim said.
