Sure, our durian exports are very popular in international markets like China. But we could do so much more with the King of Fruits (perhaps addressing non-durian eaters?). For instance, we can make and properly brand them as ice-cream, cakes, crepes, chocolate, anything to maximise the durian’s true potential. It could also be made as a flavour essence like chocolate or strawberry.
Malaysian paddy rice like those from Kedah and Sarawak have a unique strain. They are rice varieties that we can promote and brand as speciality rice to the world. If Siamese rice is known to be fragrant, our rice can be known for its compact size and smaller water retention, which would be perfect for fried rice!
Another example is Bario rice of Sarawak, which is known for being GMO-free, small but packed with nutrients. There’s already a small niche demand for Bario rice in local and overseas markets, but we seriously think it could use better branding and packaging to look good and presentable!
Aside from these ‘exotic’ ingredients, we have so many more dishes to offer to the world. Aside from common ones such as nasi lemak, laksa, chee cheong fun, we also need more people to try delicacies from Sabah & Sarawak such as latok, hinava and ambuyat.