Meet Our Farmers
"Farmers are ordinary people with an extraordinary job to do, we nourish and delight the world with food."
We pride ourselves in finding the genuine Bentong farms and carrying only the highest quality Bentong ginger. We believe you deserve to know where your ginger comes from.
Mr. L. S Khoo, 63 year-old, grew up in Bukit Tinggi, he’s always been grown up with ginger.
Mr. Khoo is considered a bit of a superstar or evergreen in the world of Bentong ginger. He started the ginger farming activities since 1970s in Bukit Tinggi, Bentong.
"Ginger farming in Bukit Tinggi is a sun set industry. In the previous years (during the peak), we had more than 100 ginger farmers in Bukit Tinggi. Today, I estimate not more than 20 left," said Mr. Khoo.
One of the uniqueness of Bentong ginger is it must be planted only on the freshly opened forestland. As the plants deplete the nutrients in the soils for 5 years after the initial crop, therefore new land is required for new crop. This has caused massive deforestation issue in Bukit Tinggi over the years. Yields of ginger crop from the recycled land is normally 50% – 70% vs. the new land. Furthermore, coupled with enforcement exercises by forestry department (all ginger crop is planted on illegal government land), farmer has switched from ginger farming to other crops to minimize the risk.
Today, Mr. Khoo has to manage few pieces of lands (recycled land) that available for his ginger farming — he has to plan his gingers accordingly to have the crops ready to go when they’re needed sustainably. "I love this challenge, this is my dream to ensure availability of genuine Bentong ginger" he says. "I know what's supposed to happen when we put a crop in the ground, but there's a lot that can happen between planting and harvest! It's a risky business."
"Ginger farming on recycled land required us to work a lot harder to grow the crops because it’s the right thing to do, even though it’s more difficult and expensive than farming conventionally,” he says. “In addition, we have to make and keep a steady commitment to freshness and quality".