SERDANG: Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has expressed the need to check on middlemen issues which had impacted food prices.
The prime minister said the issues could be managed with the use of modern techology, citing online marketing as an example.
“We now have online marketing, which means farmers can sell their produce to buyers directly and the delivery can be done by the transport companies.
“So, if the farmers are using this new method of selling, we can almost get rid the middlemen.
“But sometimes middlemen are necessary. Sometimes they charge too much and this is something we all must monitor,” he told reporters after the launch of 2018 Malaysia Agriculture, Horticulture and Agrotourism (MAHA) Show.
Dr Mahathir gave examples of the big increase of food items such as the price of fish which only cost RM8 per kg when it landed from the fishing boat, but was sold at the retail price of RM36 per kg.
“This is a very big increase, which is caused by the middlemen. Middlemen like that we call extreme and we may need to check on that,” said the prime minister.
Dr Mahathir was also asked on how the government would boost the agriculture sector with its limited budget.
“We may not have a lot of money...whatever little money we have we can improve techniques in producing food (such as ) vegetables and fish.
“As we have more money, we will adopt more expensive methods. We cannot afford what some countries do, but even with the cheaper techniques you already can improve old agriculture ways,” he said.
Reports by: Azura Abas, Manirajan Ramasamy, Irwan Shafrizan Ismail, Rizanizam Abdul Hamid