CAMERON HIGHLANDS: There must be a balance between the costs borne by the people and poultry industry players to ensure the chicken prices do not burden any quarters.
Agriculture and Food Industry Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee said comprehensive discussions with several ministries including the Domestic, Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry and Finance Ministry will be held to address the matter.
Kiandee said factors in the occurrences of rising prices of chicken and other food products must also be looked at from the angles of all the related parties, such as food supply components and whether there is sufficient manpower.
"If it is due to the importation of animal feed, which is outside of our country's control due to international market (forces), then this needs to be looked at in a holistic manner.
"We are very concerned with (chicken) prices for Malaysians, but we are also focused on wanting to see the livestock industry move up positively. Industry players need to be protected. The people (consumers) need to be protected as well," he said after visiting the Kampung Raja Multipurpose Hall vaccination centre (PPV) under the Agrofood Industry Vaccination Programme (AiVAC) here, today.
He said the government could not manipulate the international market, which had caused an increase in animal feed prices.
Therefore, there should be further discussions between the ministries involved in finding the best solution to this, he said.
"If we want to help, we have to talk about providing subsidies and so on to cover the cost of importing animal feed components.
"As such, there must be a balance between the actual price, the industrial price and also the price that should be given to Malaysians as a whole," he said.
Meanwhile, Kiandee said that he welcomed the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry's (KPDNHEP) efforts to discuss with the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry on ways to resolve the issue of rising chicken prices.
He did not rule out the possibility of them setting up a special committee.
"The Domestic Trade Ministry is concerned about the price increase, so we welcome the effort to sit down together and discuss this, perhaps with the Finance Ministry too so that we can find a comprehensive solution," he said.
Yesterday, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi had said that the minisry had no plans for now to implement price controls on chickens except during major festive seasons through the enforcement of the Festive Seasons Price Control Scheme Enforcement.
He, however said that the ministry would not hesitate to implement deterrent enforcement by enforcing a permanent price control, if prices at every chicken distribution network continued to increase unreasonably.
Based on the monitoring of wholesale price on Sept 10, the average price of standard chicken (cleaned) at the national level is RM8.83/kg.
The price increase had been attributed to the increase in the cost of primary ingredients for chicken feed namely soy, corn and palm oil, which had gone up several times this year.