Malaysia Has Potential To Be Major Reef Exporter

KUALA TERENGGANU (Terengganu, Malaysia), April 24 (Bernama) -- Malaysia has the potential to be a major exporter of coral reef with its 3,600 km, or 1.27 per cent, of the world's coral reef's location representing more than 540 species of hard corals. Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industries, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, said coral reef exports from Malaysia were still small coming from east Malaysian states, Sabah and Sarawak while Indonesia controlled 90 per cent of the world coral reef exports, followed by Philippines and Vietnam. "The Department of Fisheries Malaysia has conducted market research and we found that there is high interest abroad for Malaysian coral reef. "As a result, 70 companies from Europe, US, Russia, Japan and China are interested to get decorative products made from Malaysian coral, while exports quota has also been approved to conduct business transactions at international level," he said, here, Thursday. --BERNAMA