Kota Kinabalu: The ceiling price for five-kilogramme (kg) bottled cooking oil has been capped at RM34.70 for Sabah, Sarawak and the Federal Territory of Labuan effective Aug 8, similar to Peninsular Malaysia.
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said the mechanism to determine the ceiling price is based on the simulated sales price of pure cooking oil at retail level, taking into consideration current developments of crude palm oil at global markets.
“However, the setting of the ceiling price also considered several contingency costs, including logistics, as well as situations faced by some retailers to exhaust their supply of pure cooking oil bought at old prices,” he said.
Nanta said the setting of the monthly ceiling price for unsubsidised cooking oil is based on the previous month’s average global price of a metric ton of crude palm oil (CPO) was decided at the Special Task Force on Jihad Against Inflation meeting on Monday.
“The average monthly CPO price was determined by the Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry on the 1st of every month followed by the announcement of the ceiling price of bottled cooking oil for the month, effective 8th till 7th of the following month,” he said.
The taskforce Chairman, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, had announced that the bottled cooking oil would be sold at RM34.70 this month effective Aug 8 and the price would only be for Peninsular Malaysia.
Meanwhile, Nanta said the ban on unsubsidised pure cooking oil in all forms of polibags was gazetted to avoid confusion among consumers and exporters and to improve effectiveness of monitoring to reduce leakages.
Meanwhile, former State Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Junz Wong said with a new price ceiling from July, the standard round chicken in Peninsular Malaysia costs RM9.40 per kg. On the other hand, the price ceiling for Grade A, B and C chicken eggs was RM0.45, RM0.43 and RM0.41 each, respectively.
“Sabah, Sarawak and Labuan experienced at least a few ringgit increases during the introduction of the new price ceiling for chicken – at RM11-RM11.30 per kg, RM9.80-RM12.90 and RM11.30, respectively.
“Similarly, the price of grade A egg is at RM0.47 each in Sarawak, except in Limbang and Lawas (RM0.49 each), grade B (RM0.45 to RM0.48) and grade C (RM0.43 to RM 0.46). The price of grade A, B and C eggs in Sabah is RM0.50-RM0.51 each, RM0.49-RM0.50 and RM0.48-RM0.49, respectively,” he said.
He said for Labuan, the grade A egg is set at RM0.51 each, for grade B at RM0.50 and grade C at RM0.49.
“Take chicken as an example: the imposition of an export ban for commercial broilers, round chicken, chicken cuts and day-old chicks (DOC) since June and ongoing price ceiling measures since February have resulted in Malaysia having an oversupply of chicken.
“I am concerned that Singapore might not import chicken supply from Malaysia anymore if both the export ban and price ceiling measures persist. Japfa Comfeed Indonesia (JCI), an Indonesian agri-food company already stated its interest in setting up three new farms in Bintan this year to supply live chicken in Singapore,” he said.
He said to avoid Malaysia losing out on its comparative advantage in chicken export, the current administration should remove the export ban and price ceiling measures without hesitation.
“In addition, the current administration could evaluate the effectiveness of the ceiling price for 5kg bottled palm cooking oil monthly. However, the government still require sustainable solutions to manage the cooking oil price in the long run.
“The government should provide cooking oil vouchers to coffeeshop/food stall owners and low-income households while introducing price ceiling measures. To avoid profiteering and smuggling of cooking oil, the government should conduct a thorough supply chain investigation -from production, processing and distribution to sales on a regular basis,” he said.
