KUALA LUMPUR – The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) did not plan to introduce additional price control other than those implemented during the major festive seasons under the Festive Season Ceiling Price Scheme (FSCPS) to curb the repetitious price increment of chicken.
Nevertheless, the ministry will not hesitate to implement price control if the commodity continues to increase beyond the reasonable price, or if there are cartels manipulating the price at all network.
Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said that the ministry will implement a new approach by issuing notice to all wholesalers and retailers for an engagement session with the producers and chicken breeders at localities where the price hike is seen.
The new approach may be able to tackle price increment of good, especially in chicken, besides enabling the traders to check the prices of goods and purchase cost to get a more reasonable profit margin.
Besides that, the approach would also serve as a reminder to chicken sellers to not simply hike their price in the distribution chain.
If they refuse to cooperate, stern actions and maximum compound and / or prosecution will be made.
“We hope that all traders in the distribution chain will maintain high ethics in conducting businesses and help the government in stabilising the price of chicken without sudden and continuous increment.
“KDPNHEP will continue to hold discussions with the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) in ensuring the upstream factors such as imported chicken feed, prices of chicks and breed that affect the prices of chicken at the downstream level can be minimised and managed,” he said in a statement today.
He said, MAFI and KPDNHEP are ready to play their role on making policies related to the price of chicken in the market.
A retail price monitoring on 10 September 2021 found that the national average price of standard chicken price is RM8.83/kg.
At the Peninsular of Malaysia, the average retail price is RM8.78/kg with the range of RM5.99/kg and RM11.00/kg.
Based on an observation by the ministry, wet / public markets are selling chicken at a higher price range of over RM9.00/kg.
The highest price of RM11.00/kg is sold at Pasar Besar Raub, Pahang.
At the same time, supermarkets and hypermarkets are still selling chickens at a reasonable price.
Tesco/Lotus nationwide is selling chicken at the lowest price of RM5.99/kg.
Besides that, Giant Hypermarket, Mydin Hypermarket and Econsave are selling chicken at RM7.39-RM7.99/kg.
Therefore, the consumers are advised to be more prudent in choosing the place and time to buy chicken at reasonable price.
In Sabah, the average standard chicken price is RM11.33/kg. The highest price is spotted at Gentingmas Mall, Sandakan at RM11.80/kg. Meanwhile, the lowest price is RM10.90/kg at the Sibuga Wet Market, Batu 8, in Sandakan.
In Sarawak, the average standard chicken price is RM8.56/kg. The highest price is sold at Central Market, Sarikei at RM9.80/kg dijual di Central Market, Sarikei, meanwhile, the lowest price is sold at Everwin Supermarket Mukah at RM7.50/kg.
Alexander added, early analysis found that there were a few cost increments for chicken feed throughout this year, such as corn, soy and raw palm oil.
Two main ingredients, namely, corn and soy are imported from foreign manufacturers. -MalaysiaGazette
