GEORGE TOWN: Penang has received 30,000kg of local white rice for sale to address its market shortage.
The state is the first to receive the supply under the Local White Rice (BPT) intervention initiative.
State Agrotechnology, Food Security and Cooperative Development Committee chairman Fahmi Zainol said they received the supply today and had started selling them through the state Federal Agricultural Marketing Board (Fama).
"Penang is the first state to receive 3,000 sacks of rice, weighing 10kg each, to be sold statewide to address the current shortage.
"This is only the first batch of supply and we expect more supplies to be sent to us in stages," he told the New Straits Times in an interview at his office in Komtar here this afternoon.
Elaborating further, Fahmi said individual buyers could purchase two sacks each while group buy (trader), 10 sacks each.
"We want to advise the people not to resort to panic buying to ensure ample supply for others.
"The rice will be sold according to the price set by the government," he added.
Fahmi said Penang had been experiencing a shortage of local white rice supply since last week.
He said checks in hypermarkets, supermarkets and sundry shops on the island and mainland showed many did not have local white rice supply.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu had directed Fama to intervene in the marketing of local white rice after reports of shortage of supply in several states.
He said the intervention was to ensure that there was no longer a shortage of local white rice supply in the country.
He added that the local white rice would be made available at Fama operation centres as well as Fama retail outlets.
Mohamad said the local white rice intervention involved 12 states in Peninsular Malaysia with 35 operation centres and a distribution of 400,000 kg or 400 metric tonnes.
Meanwhile, Fahmi said the Penang government should be given the autonomy to control its own rice production to ensure ample supply in the state.
"We want to have our own padi seed bank to prevent shortage of supply in the market," he said.