Last Tuesday, a message came in around 11pm.
It was a bakery owner from Petaling Jaya. She had found us online, loved the idea of dabai paste (dabai is a Sarawak native fruit, sort of like an olive that tastes like butter and dark chocolate had a baby), and wanted to try it in her croissants.
Then she typed: "But I only need maybe 2kg to test. Do you have minimum order?"
Honest answer? Yes, we do. But it is not the scary number she was imagining.
Why MOQ Exists in the First Place
People sometimes think MOQ is just a supplier being difficult. It is not.
When we process dabai paste here in Sibu, we are working with a seasonal fruit sourced upriver - from Ulu Kanowit, Ngemah, Song, those kinds of areas along the Rajang. Harvest windows are short. Processing happens in batches. Cold storage has real costs.
A single 1kg order costs us almost the same effort to pack and ship as a 10kg order. So MOQ protects both sides - it keeps our pricing honest and keeps your per-unit cost from going through the roof.
What SFE's MOQ Actually Looks Like
It depends on where you are. We try to keep things practical for each situation.
- Sibu local buyers: Minimum 2 to 3kg per delivery. Easy to top up as you go.
- Within Sarawak (outside Sibu): Minimum one foam box, which runs 10 to 20kg. This is a logistics reality - cold chain shipping needs a proper insulated box to make sense.
- Outside Sarawak (West Malaysia and beyond): Please WhatsApp me for a quote. Every order is different depending on volume and destination, so we work it out together.
All our pastes come in 1kg vacuum packs. So ordering in multiples of 1kg is how it works - clean, easy to portion, straightforward to store.
The "But I Only Need 2kg" Problem
Here is the honest truth. If you genuinely only need 2kg to do a trial batch, message me anyway.
Sometimes we have partial stock from a previous run. Sometimes another buyer is combining orders. I cannot promise it every time, but we try to find a way - especially for first-time buyers who are clearly serious (a midnight WhatsApp asking specific questions is a good sign, by the way).
How Small Bakeries Can Plan Smarter
A few things I have seen work well:
- Forecast by your menu cycle. If you rotate seasonal specials every quarter, order at the start of each cycle - not when you run out mid-production.
- Share your forecast or budget with us. If you can give us a rough sense of what you need over the next few months, it genuinely helps us plan our batches and make sure your stock is ready when you need it. We are a small operation - this kind of heads-up makes a real difference.
- Combine SKUs to hit MOQ. If dabai paste alone feels like too much, pair it with a durian paste or cempedak paste order. Variety is useful for a bakery anyway.
Shelf Life and Storage Reality
Our dabai paste is made without artificial preservatives. All packed in vacuum packs.
Frozen shelf life is 24 months from production date. That said - once you open a pack, treat it with respect. Store it in a closed container in the freezer and finish it as soon as you reasonably can. Proper storage keeps the flavour right.
If you are not sure how to handle it when it arrives, just ask. I will walk you through it.
If you want to talk through your actual volume needs before committing to anything, just WhatsApp me directly. Bring your questions, bring your weird croissant ideas. I genuinely like hearing what bakers are trying to create.
— Budak Dabai, Sarawak Fruit Enterprise