Officials take action as chicken prices hit RM9.50 per kg
Price control officers have issued notices to traders and wholesalers in Johor and Melaka.
KUALA LUMPUR: Authorities in several states have begun taking stern action following the drastic rise of chicken prices at markets since the start of Ramadan.
Several non-governmental organisations have also urged the authorities to intervene over the issue due to the impact on the public.
Price control notices were issued to 20 chicken traders and wholesalers at public markets in Johor Bahru after inspections were conducted following complaints about price increases.
In Melaka, traders and chicken suppliers have been given three to five days to produce documents.
If there are elements of profiteering, they will be issued compounds under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
For users, do not worry as monitoring will be done every day and if there are complaints, please inform us immediately,” she said.
Checks at the Melaka central market revealed that chicken is being sold at around RM9.50 per kilogramme, with consumers complaining about the prices.
A trader, Hamzah Othman, 57, said never in his 30 years experience of selling chickens has he had to sell at such a high price, but he had no choice as the suppliers themselves had set such a high price.
“Some suppliers said the price hike was due to breeders having to sustain increases in imported feed prices of up to 40%. This has happened not only here but everywhere,” he said.
The Consumers Association of Penang has urged authorities to intervene to resolve the drastic increase in chicken prices that coincided with the beginning of Ramadan.
CAP education officer N. V. Subbarow said the price hike had burdened everyone and that stern action must be taken against chicken suppliers.
“Previously, chicken was sold at RM7.50 a kg but now it’s sold between RM9 to RM10 per kg with the excuse that feed costs and other expenses have increased,” he said in a statement.
Several non-governmental organisations have also urged the authorities to intervene over the issue due to the impact on the public.
Price control notices were issued to 20 chicken traders and wholesalers at public markets in Johor Bahru after inspections were conducted following complaints about price increases.
In Melaka, traders and chicken suppliers have been given three to five days to produce documents.
If there are elements of profiteering, they will be issued compounds under Section 21 of the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
For users, do not worry as monitoring will be done every day and if there are complaints, please inform us immediately,” she said.
Checks at the Melaka central market revealed that chicken is being sold at around RM9.50 per kilogramme, with consumers complaining about the prices.
A trader, Hamzah Othman, 57, said never in his 30 years experience of selling chickens has he had to sell at such a high price, but he had no choice as the suppliers themselves had set such a high price.
“Some suppliers said the price hike was due to breeders having to sustain increases in imported feed prices of up to 40%. This has happened not only here but everywhere,” he said.
The Consumers Association of Penang has urged authorities to intervene to resolve the drastic increase in chicken prices that coincided with the beginning of Ramadan.
CAP education officer N. V. Subbarow said the price hike had burdened everyone and that stern action must be taken against chicken suppliers.
“Previously, chicken was sold at RM7.50 a kg but now it’s sold between RM9 to RM10 per kg with the excuse that feed costs and other expenses have increased,” he said in a statement.
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kt notes:
This public-govt-official pandemonium occurs every now and then, so why should we be surprised it's happening again, more so when we are in the midst of a pandemic which has pushed prices, of goods and services up and up.
Feedlot even in Australia has risen, what more in Malaysia and surrounding nations.
I don't like the way CAP education officer N. V. Subbarow has blamed chicken suppliers for the price skyrocketing and more so, his advocacy of stern action to be taken against those suppliers, WITHOUT ascertaining whether there is profiteering or just the arse luck of pandemic-driven scarcity of resources, services and a general slowing down of chicken farming.
Eff-er cried: “Previously, chicken was sold at RM7.50 a kg but now it’s sold between RM9 to RM10 per kg with the excuse that feed costs and other expenses have increased.”
Some years ago, down in Oz, bananas were sold normally at $1.50 to $2 per kg, but when a tropical storm, flooding etc etc etc, hit Queensland, the major banana growing state in Oz, the price per kg of pisang eventually went up to $42.
Yes, from $1.50 to $42.00 per kg of pisang - still, there were eff-ers who bought them, wakakaka.
Thus, for a chicken per kg to rise from RM7.50 to RM10 in the midst of a pandemic slowdown in production may not be that strange. But yes sirree, I don't like the CAP officer making preemptive blaming of this fella and that fella.
And in Malaysia, I particularly don't like the phrase "Officers will take stern action", where to politically please and assuage the voters and to show them that the eff-up government is somehow still in control, some poor chicken suppliers will cop it sweet, that is, be burdened with brutal orders by government officials to "lower" the cost no matter what, OR ELSE.
There ARE suppliers, especially middlemen who take advantage of increases in input prices to make extraordinary gains.
ReplyDeleteSo a 10% increase in input prices, ends up as wild swings of 50% inbend consumer prices.
I'm a free market proponent as always, but Malaysia is already not Free Market, with "connected" cartels controlling everything from feed supply, farming, transport, distribution.
Mfer, ain't u one of those links within that "connected" cartels?
DeleteDon't lie to show up hippo nature lah!