TENOM: 24 October 2026
Tenom will turn its coffee plantations into a tourism draw to create new income for growers, as Sabah pushes to make the district self-sufficient in coffee by 2030.
Agriculture, Fisheries and Food Industries Minister Datuk Jamawi Jaafar said Tenom, home to four coffee factories, is targeting 50 per cent self-sufficiency in coffee production.
“We have secured 70 acres for new planting and we want more landowners to register their land,” Jamawi said at the Tenom Coffee Festival at Dewan Antanum.
He said coffee takes three years to bear fruit and dried beans now fetch about RM20 per kg.
The bottleneck is drying. A government-funded drying facility has been approved and is now out for tender, he said.
He said plantation tours and bean-to-cup experiences could be developed around the expansion, but gave no detailed tourism plan.
A three-day special train service from Tanjung Aru to Tenom was provided in conjunction with the festival.-HS
