 |
| Wet Sago in Mills Sungai Tohor Village |
Starch is in
demand as a commodity for both food and industrial applications. As such, sago
starch should be able to gain a share in the huge world starch market. Sago has
unique properties that render it ideal in specific applications (Hamanishi et
al. 1999). Among
these properties are large starch granules, clear gel, high swelling power,
non-gluten, and slow in releasing sugar. Currently, its gel clarity property is
utilized in the glass noodle and vermicelli industries, and other properties
have yet to be commercially exploited. On the other hand, sago starch can be
used as a multipurpose raw material for both food and nonfood applications such
as in the fermentation industry. Because of its high yield and other advantages
over most other crops, sago could be competitively produced for such
applications.
Sago starch is relatively
unknown to the international starch markets owing to its limited production for
domestic demands in major producing countries like Malaysia and Indonesia.
Currently selling at about USD 700/mt FOB Sarawak, refined sago is,
respectively, about 35 and 20% more expensive than cassava and corn starches. As
such, corn or cassava starch buyers are not willing to consider sago for their existing
uses. Because of its unique properties, refined sago starch could be used in more
specific applications.
However, potential new buyers
that require such starch properties are unfamiliar with sago and need to be
educated and convinced through further R&D before being considered together
with other factors like cost advantages,
quantity and constancy of
supply, as well as suitability/modification of the existing setup if sago were
to be used. Thus, before refined sago can be readily marketed internationally,
more R&D on its properties and applications, followed by aggressive product
promotions, need to be looked into. A more plausible way is to market sago as a
raw material for fermentation and modified starch industries.
Crude sago without
refining could be produced more competitively than refined sago especially in
areas where the sago palms are plentiful and cheap, e.g., from the
million hectares of
natural sago forests in Papua New Guinea and West Papua. A commercial
processing line to produce sago without added water would be ideal to produce
sago at a competitive price for the fermentation as well as health-food industries.
In such a process, proteins, minerals, sugar, polyphenols, and other nutrients will
be retained. There will be no effluent, and all by-products will be utilized in
the process (e.g., bark for fuel, fiber for feed and biofuel).
