Consumers of Bario Rice will be glad to know that a scheme to assure them of its true quality has been initiated by the Department of Agriculture, Sarawak. The quality of the rice up to now has been high generally but hasn't been the most consistent with its name.

So therefore the Bario Rice Certification Scheme (BRCS) seeks to certify that it production from seed certification to end-product retail and distribution - follows good agriculture practices (GAP). The scheme further seeks to assure consumers of a consistently genuine pure Bario Rice quality standard as and when available on the market, local or global. Towards this objective, BRCS has identified three component; seed certification, farm registration and product certification.

The idea of this Bario Rice Certification was first mooted by the then Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries, Dato Sri Adenan Satem during his winding-up speech on one of the department's organized function. He later instructed our department to develop and implement this scheme which would assure consumers that the products they bought were of the desired quality.

In 2002, Bario Rice was accorded an International Presidia Award by Slow Food Foundation of Italy through the effort of the Department of Agriculture, Sarawak and BERNAS. This was the first time Bario Rice was promoted overseas. This makes Bario Rice a global trendsetter of the Malaysian Rice Industry.

With BRCS in place, Bario Rice is set to do well as commercial product for a niche market.

Under the scheme, planters will be given quality "seedling' and adopt good agricultural practices (GAP). "This is to ensure that the rice is pure Bario Rice and its quality is guaranteed," said Tan Sri Dr George Chan when lauching the BRCS at Dewan Suaray Miri last year (Sept 2005).

BRCS Component 1

BRCS Component 2

BRCS Component 3

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