ALOR STAR: The government should consider withdrawing subsidies for chicken and egg in stages while focusing on efforts on strengthening and building the capacity of local poultry breeders for sustainable food security.
Consumers Association of Kedah (Cake) president Yusrizal Yusoff pointed out it is a bad time now for the government to remove subsidies completely because it may aggravate the people's cost of living which is already high.
"Any move by the government to withdraw subsidies now for chicken and eggs, or any other essential items will be about bad timing since the people's cost of living has jumped significantly.
"Our concern is if the government withdraws subsidies in haste, there will be unscrupulous parties who will take advantage of the situation to increase prices," he said when contacted.
Rizal said removing subsidies for essential items should only be considered once there is a significant increase in the people's income, particularly the B40 group, so they are capable to weather any price hikes.
He reiterated Cake's stand that the government should be focusing on building capacity of existing small and medium-scale local breeders while nurturing young entrepreneurs in this sector instead of relying on imports.
He stressed that the current issue concerning the shortage of locally produced white rice should be taken as a stern lesson.
"If the government withdraws subsidies now and offload the prices of chicken and egg, we are worried it will end up with what we are facing with white rice. The price of imported rice has increased and there is a supply shortage in the market of locally produced white rice."
Rizal said an over reliance on imports is a risky game especially in wake of the depreciating ringgit and the move by source countries to halt or limit their export.
"An example is the plan to import eggs from India. We expect the cost of importing from India is higher due to weak ringgit. Furthermore, the quality of eggs produced in India is less superior than locally-produced eggs."
Rizal pointed out that the government should come up with a holistic plan to develop the local poultry sector at a massive scale to create healthy competition in the domestic market.
He said focus should be given on how to help to reduce the burden of local breeders' operating costs especially in terms of livestock feed and other costs.
"The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry should intensify efforts to empower our agriculture and poultry sectors.
"Besides focusing on securing high technology and high impact investments, we hope the government will give due attention on livestock breeding sector for the sake of food security."
Rizal said the government should also give due attention on improving the country's agriculture and poultry supply chain to nurture a fair and healthy competition.
"The government needs to learn how to properly manage our resources and supply especially during festive seasons.
"Actually, we are not yet in a crisis per say, but the government needs to focus on improving our supply chain and trade. We believe there are elements of cartel and monopoly.
"This has resulted us from being deprived of healthy competition in the domestic market. The government should make use of all the laws at hand to take action."
Rizal was commenting on Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohammad Sabu's statement on Wednesday that the government would announce the outcome of its review on chicken and egg subsidies, as well as its price control soon.
Mohamad was reported as saying that the review was based on the fact that the supplies have stabilised and the prices have been lower than the set ceiling prices.
The government had initially planned to float prices of chicken and egg from July 1, but decided it would continue giving subsidies and imposing ceiling prices on them.
The retail ceiling price for standard processed chicken remains at RM9.40 per kg, while grade A eggs are 45 sen each, grade B (43 sen) and grade C (41 sen).