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MUAR, Johor/CAMERON HIGHLANDS, Pahang – Along the flatlands of coastal Muar, sweltering workers are busy fertilising flowering shrubs under an overcast sky. In a matter of weeks, some of these plants from the southern Johor state will wend their way towards Singapore to help beautify the city-state’s streets and neighbourhoods.
Nearly 400km northwards, in the cooler climate of Cameron Highlands in Pahang state, rows of chrysanthemum blossoms sitting pretty in plastic-covered greenhouses await harvesting. Many of these will soon journey to Japan, where they will be offered at home altars as a sign of respect for the ancestors.
These two very different hubs – the lowlands of Muar, hot and humid year-round, and the highlands where daily temperatures range from 15 deg C to 25 deg C – quietly form the backbone of Malaysia’s multi-million dollar floriculture industry.
Malaysia’s floriculture trade has flourished over the years, with its export value peaking at US$121 million (S$155.7 million) in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic took its toll.
While business is picking up pace again, growers face pressure from labour woes and cheap Chinese blooms – hence, it will take grit as well as green fingers to sustain competitiveness and keep their businesses thriving.
Like fashion, floriculture follows trends – plants fall in and out of style, just like clothes on a runway, mused
Mr Johnson Bu
, the 56-year-old executive director of Bu Seng Chong Nursery in Muar.
“There is no permanent preference for a species (in floriculture). Like fashion,
it
changes according to people's tastes and sensibilities,” he told The Straits Times.
His father, Mr Bu Seng Chong, 77, founded the business bearing his name in the 1970s. One of Malaysia’s floriculture pioneers, the senior Mr Bu began supplying trees and shrubs to landscaping contractors in Singapore as the city-state set about transforming itself into a “Garden City”.
In the early days of Singapore, large trees with ...
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