All organic treat: The nipa palm (the tree’s fruit, left) can be found in the mangrove forests of Sarawak. The tree is tapped to yield a sap which is cooked for hours to produce gula apong.
PETALING JAYA: Eight years ago, Saiful Firdaus Sulaiman quit his job as a hotel chef and banked on selling gula apong – a little-known sweetener made by river communities in Sarawak – to the world.
After battling almost two years of pandemic lockdowns and grappling with inconsistent product quality, the 40-year-old’s resilience and passion caught the attention of a federal agency who stepped in to give his company the global spring board it needed.
Today, his gula apong is exported to Brunei, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and soon, China and Japan, thanks to support from the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority (Fama).
“We’ve even entered the milk tea business, supplying a well-known chain with our products,” the 40-year-old said with pride.
His company now employs 12 people and boasts an annual turnover of RM1.2mil in 2023.
In 2016, Saiful chanced upon the hidden gem in Sarawak’s mangrove forests. The nipa palm, or Nypa fructicans, offers a sweet nectar that’s been valued and harvested by villagers for ages.
The sap is tapped, painstakingly collected and then slowly cooked into a rich, organic sugar known locally as gula apong, after the local word for the tree it comes from – pokok apong.
Historically, gula apong was reserved for traditional native treats. Today, it’s found as an ingredient in ice cream, dessert toppings, cakes and as a natural sweetener in handcrafted beverages.
Saiful’s gula apong will soon be exported to five countries.
“We pride ourselves on bolstering the local economy by transforming gula apong into a suite of innovative products,” Saiful said.
The company’s stringent standards produce high quality gula apong syrup, cubes, granules, and paste that capture the essence of Borneo’s mangroves, he added.
Recounting his entrepreneurial journey, Saiful started in 2016, with just two employees and RM100,000 in savings from his job as a chef and the profits from a mobile phone repair shop.
“It was in 2018 when we began to tackle the challenges head-on – from quality fluctuations to hygiene and yield issues. I worked closely with the local farmers, refining cultivation and processing techniques,” he said.
He also assisted the growers in constructing access roads and improving extraction equipment.
Just when his products started gaining traction, the Covid-19 pandemic brought everything to a grinding halt.
But Saiful was undeterred. He dove into research and developed an online presence to market gula apong jam and syrup, tapping into a worldwide trend towards organic and natural foods.
At the end of 2020, Fama and the Bumiputera Agenda Steering Unit (Teraju) recognised his potential and reached out with an offer of assistance that included a game-changing RM500,000 fund.
“I had never thought to seek government aid; self-reliance was my only strategy. That these institutions supported me felt like an affirmation of my efforts,” he reflected.
Speaking of Fama’s efforts to help young entrepreneurs such as Saiful, its director-general Abdul Rashid Bahri said the agency’s Geran Agropreneur Muda has so far benefited 1,512 individuals and businesses.
The programme aims to bolster the participation of young people in agri-entrepreneurship, along the entire value chain from farming, livestock breeding, fisheries to activities such as marketing and agro-tourism.
Up to RM20,000 is awarded per individual and Fama says it is a non-repayable investment in the future of Malaysia’s youth and the agricultural industries they will lead.
“Fama doesn’t just passively wait for applications; we actively scout for promising products,” Abdul Rashid said.
Their support extends to refining product formulations, crafting impactful packaging, forging connections with international vendors, and facilitating participation in global trade fairs to showcase Malaysian products.
Offering more than just financial assistance, Fama is committed to removing typical hindrances faced by young entrepreneurs, such as the daunting wall of startup capital requirements.
“Adequate financial backing is crucial, but so is providing mentorship, technical know-how, networking opportunities, and access to markets – these are the real catalysts for entrepreneurship among the youth,” he added.
He acknowledges a gap in the know-how among young entrepreneurs regarding packaging and presenting their products effectively.
“Without premium packaging and astute marketing, the finest products may slip into anonymity,” he asserted.
