MALAYSIAN STATE TO BECOME CATFISH SARDINE PRODUCER

KANGAR (Malaysia), Nov 11 (Bernama) -- Perlis, a northern state in
Peninsular Malaysia, is to become a catfish sardine producer when a RM2 million
factory is set up in the Padang Besar Halal Hub Park next year, state
Agriculture and Agro-based Industry committee Chairman Sabry Ahmad
said Wednesday.

He said the factory would be built by a foreign company. However, he
declined to name the company concerned.

Sabry said with the setting up of the factory it would promote further the
breeding of catfish on a commercial basis especially in the state and in the
nothern Kedah area.

For a start, he said, breeding of the fish had already started on a
commercial scale in Bukit Manik, near here in early October.

Sabry said the project, which involved 70 breeders, was carried out under
the Hardcore Poor Development Programme through a RM700,000 (US$226,683)
allocation from the Prime Minister's Department, with the Fisheries Department
and the Farmers' Organisation Authority as the managers.

He disclosed this to Bernama after presenting catfish fries and fish food to
247 breeders here.

--BERNAMA