Nowadays, stingless bee honey (meliponine honey) or locally known as ‘madu lebah kelulut’ is becoming popular among Malaysian consumers due to its acclaimed health benefits and advantages such as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Usually, stingless bee honey is used as a supplement to modern medicine, and the increase in health awareness among consumers has also increased the demand for stingless bee honey. However, due to the low production of stingless bee honey in the local market, Malaysia continues to import honey from other countries. As there is an abundant of imported honey products, local beekeepers are facing stiff competition, and consumers also need to make a difficult purchasing decision on the most preferable honey products in the market. Therefore, the main objective of the present work was to determine the consumers’ quality preferences towards stingless bee honey based on sensory characteristics. A total of 406 respondents of honey consumers were selected to test stingless bee honey sample based on its appearance, aroma, texture and flavour. The respondents responded based on a structured questionnaire using a 5-point Likert scale statements about their responses towards stingless bee honey sensory characteristics. The responses of the respondents were analysed based on descriptive analysis, factor analysis and logistic regression analysis. The results revealed nine factors that influenced consumers’ preferences towards stingless bee honey such as granularity, colour, bitterness, sweetness, viscosity, spice aroma, sourness, herbal aroma and fruity aroma, with viscosity being the most influential factor. The present work concluded that sensory characteristics were important to determine the consumers’ quality preferences towards stingless bee honey on purchasing decision.
Shrimp aquaculture is playing a vital role in Malaysian agriculture, especially its increasing
contribution to economic growth. White shrimp aquaculture is not only the key player in brackish
water shrimp aquaculture but also the largest contributor to Malaysian shrimp aquaculture. This
study estimates technical efficiency and investigates factors affecting technical inefficiency of
Malaysian white shrimp aquaculture. Stochastic frontier analysis with trans-log production
model is applied in this study. Malaysian white shrimp aquaculture farmers have achieved
an estimated average technical efficiency of 81.2 percent. Land ownership, shrimp seed size
and seminar are the factors having significant impacts on technical inefficiency and thereby
playing important roles in improving technical efficiency of this industry. This study suggests
that seminar should be conducted by shrimp farming extension agents to enhance knowledge
of shrimp farmers. Malaysian government should allocate lands and, provide technical and
financial supports to develop this industry. Subsidy on shrimp seed should be also given to
encourage shrimp farmers to embrace and adopt quality shrimp seed for their farms.
The aim of this study is to examine the consistency between the Balassa index and Vollrath
indices in measuring comparative advantages of the Malaysian shrimp products with other
major shrimp exporting nations as comparator. The study uses Balassa index and Vollrath
indices to measure comparative advantages of the Malaysian shrimp products. The indices then
are compared by consistency tests. Malaysia was generally not competitive in shrimp trade;
however, revealed comparative advantage (RCA) and relative export advantage (RXA) indices
show some extent of competitiveness on non-frozen shrimp product. Thailand had a remarkable
competitiveness in shrimp trade as compared to other major exporting countries. Although we
found that double-counting problem in the Balassa index is insignificant in measuring export
performance of the Malaysian shrimp sector, import could be an important variable in accessing
its trade competitiveness. Marginal import of a sector may lead to relative trade advantage (RTA)
index consistent with RCA and RXA indices. Considering exports and imports of a particular
commodity in measuring competitiveness is more consistent with the real world phenomenon
of two-way trade. Selecting measurement of comparative advantage should rigorously base
on trade behaviour of a sector as well as theoretical constructs. The competitiveness of the
Malaysian shrimp products remains unclear due to the lack of contemporary analyses backed
by formal testing procedures. The results and policy implications of this study provide
stakeholders insights into comparative advantage as well as trade position of the products.
Better measurement for revealed comparative advantage, particularly for shrimp products, is
discussed in this paper.
Aquaculture businesses in Malaysia require careful and comprehensive financial analysis to be successful. Comprehensive financial analysis has three key components, namely financial position, profitability and liquidity/cash flow. This research focuses on using pro forma income statements to analyze financial positions and to evaluate the effect of government incentives on sustainability of Malaysian aquaculture farms. This paper is divided into two sections; the first section discusses and provides the finding and comparability of the financial analysis on freshwater and brackish water producers. In the first section, the discussion was based on financial viability criteria, namely net present value (NPV), internal rate of return (IRR) and benefit cost ratio (BCR)) for base study. The evaluation process was carried out using four different phases; base study and government incentives simulations, Pioneer Status (PS), Investment Tax Allowance (ITA), and Accelerated Capital Allowance (ACA) for effectiveness of government incentives and roles in increase of profitability and production. The results showed that in all brackish water farms, NPV after the ACA incentive showed a higher and positive value comparable to individual PS and ITA. The effect of Government Incentive on Penaeus vannamei and Grouper showed that IRR and NPV on ACA (based on PS) is 2% and 9%, respectively higher than ACA (based on ITA). Meanwhile, in Barramundi farming ACA (based on ITA) was 8% higher than ACA (based on PS). The results on freshwater showed that ACA (based on ITA) on Tilapia and Catfish was 8% and 6% higher than ACA (based on PS). This paper concludes that the aquaculture operators should choose to accept PS with ACA on Penaeus vannamei and Grouper and choose ACA based on ITA on Barramundi, Tilapia and Catfish in order to maximize private profitability.
Using Stimulus–Organism–Response (S-O-R) framework, this study examines Stimulus–
Response relationships of fresh vegetable consumers’ behavior in Klang Valley, Malaysia. In
particular, the study focused on how loyalty drivers affect retail formats choice by the fresh
vegetable (FV) consumers. The Stimuli that pertain to loyalty drivers include promotional
activities, perceived price and social interaction and the Response is the retail format choice.
Three hypotheses were developed and tested with the data collected from a survey using
simple random sampling technique. Structural Equation Model (SEM) was used in analyzing
the data. Results of the study revealed that Stimuli (loyalty drivers) influence Response (retail
format choice) for the different FV markets in Malaysia. Based on the finding of the research,
Malaysian retailers have different marketing strategies to be considered with regards to loyalty
drivers.
Malaysia depends on imports for its fragrant rice, mostly from Thailand, Vietnam, India and Pakistan. The fragrant rice farming in non-granary areas has been included in the new Entry Point Project (EPP) under the National Key Economic Areas (NKEA). In order to realize the aspiration of producing fragrant rice in large areas, it would require full participation and commitment from the existing and new farmers. The objective of this paper is to investigate farmer’s acceptance towards fragrant rice farming in two districts namely Pasir Mas and Tanah Merah, located in the state of Kelantan. The respondents of the study are 23 farmers and in-depth interviews are carried out to obtain farmers’ responses towards fragrant rice farming. The results from the content analysis reveal innovation characteristics, extension services and market pressure are among several factors that explain farmers’ acceptance towards fragrant rice farming.
The domestic demand for broiler meat is one of the highest in the Malaysian markets. The
industry requires continuous evaluation to identify the existing problems and improves its
competitive advantage. Thus, economic analysis of this sort will continue to update current
statistics on production cost, output and profitability. Following this, the study, therefore, aims
to assess the existing financial condition of farmers, marginal cost of production, total net
income and input-output ratio of broiler production in different regions in Peninsular Malaysia.
The study used multi-stage sampling in selecting 310 operators from Southern, Northern, East
Coast and Centeral regions. The analytical tools include descriptive statistics and farm budget.
The findings disclosed that the broiler farm incurs major cost from acquiring operating inputs
especially feed. The operations in the East Coast region was almost unprofitable for the reason
that feed conversion rate is more than 2 resulting in higher production cost. But the other three
regions indicate positive returns based on the estimated input-output ratios of 1:1.09, 1:1.17
and 1: 1.23 for Northern, Southern and Central regions, respectively.The study advocates for
both managerial and policy measures that will help cut the cost of production to attract more
investors and increase export.