KIULU, Aug 29 ― Kampung Tudan, a small village of 300 farmers in Sabah’s Crocker Range, is making a name for itself with an unusual crop ― mulberries.

While the general Malaysian public may be more familiar with mulberry as a luxury handbag, some corporations have been approaching this village in the Kiulu constituency accessible only by driving an hour through some gnarly hairpin bends through the Moyog Pass to turn their harvest into tea, cosmetics and most recently, soap.

"Some of them have gone from zero side income to earning between RM500 to RM700 per month just by supplying mulberry tea leaves to a cosmetic company,” said Kiulu assemblyman Datuk Joniston Bangkuai.

The offer to buy the harvested mulberry leaves came from cosmetics company Adamia. A social enterprise group from University Malaysia Sabah has been teaching some 56 villagers how to hand-make mulberry soap for the past five months.

Some 1,500 trees have been planted and are expected to produce more mulberry tea, skin whitening lotion utilising mulberry extracts and bottled sparkling water.

But those are just the spin-off products from the village. According to Bangkuai, it is only a matter of time before the residents of Kampung Tudan will be able to take charge and turn their rural village into a tourism "lung washing” draw with its pollution-free air that will be their main economic earner.

"We are also applying for a grant through the university to the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation to assist them with further product development,” he said.

How it all started

Kampung Tudan’s mulberry cultivation began with Marius Samin, 37. The farmer-turned-businessman first came across the plant at a tamu in Donggongon about 10 years ago and tried his hand at growing it.

 After various stages of fruiting and harvest, he found that not only were the berries edible but could be made into a delicious jams and wine, if done correctly.

"I used to grow strawberries and apples here but they were hard to look after and were unsuccessful. Eventually I stopped and now just plant mulberries.

"I’m not sure why but the ground here is very suitable for mulberries. Other places in Sabah have tried and failed to produce the fruits at this rate,” he said.

Samin owns about three hectares of land, of which his 300 or so mulberry trees take up more than half. He has taken his hobby a bit further and started producing mulberry wine, the first of its kind in Sabah, a few years ago.

"I read about it on the internet when trying to research what else I can do with the mulberries. Through a lot of trial and error, I started trying to make my own. At first it was really hard, there’s no expertise and I just tried and fed it to my friends and family,” he said.

Eventually, his results improved and he wine production rate and quality became more consistent, although it is still at a small scale.

During the fruiting season, bountiful clusters of mulberries would fill up the trees of his farm in Kampung Tudan, some 60 kilometres from the city.

From mulberry tea to wine

The wine tastes sweet but has a decent alcoholic hit, similar to port or other fortified wines. It is immensely drinkable, particularly if chilled and taken with some pusas as locals call the snacks eaten with alcohol.

"They were mostly just for friends to drink at first. In 2012, I started selling them in small batches,” he said.

The rustic production with unlabelled bottles selling for RM10 a pop has become more sophisticated. Now, each bottle with an alcohol content of 7 per cent is labelled "CanaC wine” and costs RM35 each. Canac was Samin’s nickname as a kid, and means "child” in Dusun.

Business is growing steadily, and last year, Samin produced over 200 bottles of his homegrown mulberry wine.

"It’s still not that much, but business is still growing. I time the harvest so that we can have more supplies for the Harvest Festival and also wedding orders. I can only do so much with the land I have. There is some land uphill in the kampung, but logistically, it is too hard,” he said.

At the moment, Samin is the sole mulberry wine producer in the state. The wine is not available commercially, but can be bought at his farm, if in stock.

He is highly secretive of the recipe and the entire wine-making process.

"I have some staff who help me to gather the fruit and harvest them, but I am the only one who actually makes it,” he said, smiling.

Village agro-tourism

Currently, Samin’s mulberry trees fruit all year round, but are particularly high yielding from January to March, in September and  October.

"During those months, I cannot harvest them all, and many just end up falling to the ground,” he said.

The solution? Samin opens a section of his farm to visitors for a small fee of RM5 per person where they are free to pick and eat as much as they want.

"You can even spend the night here. The weather is really cool at night,” he said.

To supplement his effort, there are fish ponds by his farm where visitors can also enjoy a freshly-cooked lunch of grilled fish.