PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia has requested for an additional 500,000 tonnes of white rice from India, said Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.
Mohamad said the official application to India would be made through diplomatic channels soon.
"In the meeting just now, I took the opportunity to record our deepest appreciation for the special export allocation of 170,000 tonnes of white rice to Malaysia by the government of India,” he said in a statement issued on Wednesday (March 27) after India’s Foreign Minister Dr S Jaishankar paid a courtesy call on Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
On Oct 18, the media reported that the Indian government had approved the export of 170,000 tonnes of non-Basmati white rice to Malaysia as a symbol of the special friendship between the two countries.
Mohamad, who also attended the discussion session between Jaishankar and Anwar, said Malaysia had also submitted an official request to India earlier this year to obtain a special export allocation of 100,000 tonnes of onions through a government-to-government (G2G) arrangement.
He said Malaysia appreciated the cordial bilateral relations with India in the fields of agriculture and food security.
"There are enormous opportunities for Malaysia and India to expand the scope of bilateral cooperation in agriculture and food security," he said.
Expressing the hope that the good bilateral relations between Malaysia and India will continue to strengthen, especially in the field of agriculture, Mohamad wants the relations between the two countries to reach a higher level and expand in the future.
Sharing the amount of trade in the agricultural sector between Malaysia and India for the period from January to November 2023, he said the value of trade in the sector was worth RM19.42bil.
Jaishankar is on a two-day working visit to Malaysia starting Wednesday (March 27). - Bernama
