DALAT: The Sarawak Agriculture Department recently built a modern sago processing centre at Kampung Medong, Dalat.

EASY DOES IT: Masinah (left) roasts the sago pellets on her new ‘Belanga’ model as Fatimah (second left), Saudi (second right), Sanawi (right) and others look on.

It was built for Masinah Paris to assist her in improving product quantity and quality as well as becoming a model centre towards achieving Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) certification and Good Husbandry Practices (GHP) for local sago and sago-based food producers.

The centre was built with a grant of RM75,000 from the department under the small-scale industry (SSI) projects, and supervised by the Dalat Agriculture Department under Agro-Based Industry concept for Dalat district (Industry Asas Tani – IAT Daerah Dalat).

Currently, the centre mainly produces Sago Medong, sago ‘tumpik’, coconut sago (sago nyiur) and Sago Combo 3-in-1 (sago snacks mixed with either ‘ikan bilis’ or fried anchovies or with dried shrimps or ‘sesar unjur’ and peanuts), which are Masinah’s star products.

The centre was officially opened by Assistant Minister of Agriculture (Domestic Economy and Training) Datin Fatimah Abdullah last Sunday in conjunction with the Carnival Balau Dalat 2009 from July 3-5.

Also present at the function were Mukah Resident Saudi Narani, Assistant Director of Agriculture Mukah Sanawi Ismail and Dalat District Officer Yussibnosh Balo.

Fatimah is also Assistant Minister in the Chief Minister’s Department (Human Resource and Training) and Dalat assemblywoman.

In her remarks, Fatimah said: “Sago Medong has successfully fulfilled the quality and quantity standard of Sarawak Best brand. And this new sago processing centre of Masinah Paris in Kampung Medong here was built as a model ‘Belanga’ for good manufacturing practises (GMP) and Good Husbandry Practises (GHP).”

Talking to The Borneo Post who visited her factory yesterday, Masinah said that Belanga is a local Melanau term describing the fire-place where sago is slowly burnt or roasted before it is eaten.

“My family’s Belanga normally measures about seven feet long and four feet wide. It is made of hardened clay mixed with paddy stalks or stems with some salt mixture.

“Normally we need to heat up the Belanga from underneath with firewood for about three hours first before we spread out the mixture of sago flour or sago pallets in. This sago mixture or pallets will need to be heated for about 30 minutes to be fully cooked or roasted in the Belanga.

“Normally I cook about 6kg of sago per time in a Belanga. The process of making sago Medong needs to be done by at least three persons at a time,” said Masinah.

Asked how she got involved in the sago processing industry, Masinah said she inherited it from her family.

“My sago Medong business started to grow when our village was connected by a good road to Dalat and other parts of Mukah several years back. I also attended several courses organised by Agriculture Department and CRAUN Research Sdn Bhd, which helped me a lot in improving my production quality and quantity as well as encouraging me to diversify accordingly,” said Masinah, 51.

She said that she only entered primary school for several years in her young days, but that her lack of education did not stop her from learning the trade.