IPOH: State Plantation, Agriculture and Food Industry Committee chairman Razman Zakaria said there was no subsidy for pork as it is not a staple food for all Malaysians.
Razman who is also Perak PAS chief said that the state government has yet to receive any complaints from consumers and pig farmers on the rise of the price of pork meat in the market.
"To date, the government has not received any complaints on pork (prices) and there are no aid applications from pig farmers. However, for chicken, the government has set a 60 sen subsidy for farmers per kilogramme of chicken produced.
"For your information, pork is not eaten by all Malaysians and the self-sufficiency level of pork in Perak is at 284 per cent.
"It is not a critical issue and not a national issue compared to chicken and this is one of the reasons why the Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry has taken such action to control the chicken price," he said.
The Gunung Semanggol assemblyman was replying to questions from Chong Zhemin (DAP-Keranji) and Howard Lee Chuan How (DAP-Pasir Pinji) at the state legislative assembly sitting in Bangunan Perak Darul Ridzuan here, today.
Earlier, Chong questioned measures that would be taken by the government to tackle pork meat prices which saw a sharp increase from RM700 per 100 kgs to RM1,200 per 100 kgs within six months.
According to Howard, between 2009 and 2020, Perak was the biggest pork meat producer in the country and there should be a subsidy introduced to help the farmers.
On May 3, the Federation of Livestock Farmers' Associations of Malaysia president Tan Chee Hee had said consumers could end up paying more for pork, as farmers have increased livestock pork prices by RM100 per 100kg.