Creating New Market in Integrated Agriculture Development Area in Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia - Case Study in the Supply Chain of Cucurbita sp (Pumpkin)

Cucurbita sp (yellow pumpkin) commonly grown in Malaysia. Being very easy to grow within two to three months and hold for as long as six months as fruit in the storage, it has been encouraged to be grown in Samarahan, which is considered a food belt in the northern region of Sarawak, Malaysia especially for Kuching. However, in reality, there is a limitation in the commercial production as the pumpkin is very much dependent on the market demand as the utilization has been limited to the consumption of fresh product. Thus this creates a bottleneck in the supply chain resulting in large stock being stored in the farmers' places. This study explored a diversified supply chain model from the traditional pumpkin supply chain in Samarahan which follows a simple supply chain that is short and linear linking the farmers who are the producer to the consumer through the middleman and the retailers. The research supply chain model adopted a three level chain which had the combination of level one and level two supply chains, characterized more by the producers-collector-processing industry-consumers. The diversification of the supply chain resulted in establishing an added value link from the producers to the consumers with the integration of the processing industry adopting low technology of processing raw pumpkin to dehydrated powder form with the reduction of the need of a storage space by 80% and extending the shelf-life. The research model adopted the concept of food added value supply chain or value-based chain in order to achieve effective solutions regarding the production, marketing, distribution and sale of their produce. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license.