KOTA KINABALU, March 23 — The Sabah Community Development and People’s Welfare Ministry will ensure that there is an adequate food supply in the market, especially for this upcoming festive season, the State Legislative Assembly sitting was told today.
Its Minister Datuk Shahelmey Yahya said in view of the current supply shortage of chicken and eggs in certain areas in the state, his ministry was working with the Sabah branch of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) to resolve the issue.
“There is about 10 per cent drop in the supply of chicken eggs. Therefore, we will work together with other relevant departments to ensure that there is sufficient supply ahead of the festive season,” he said.
He said this in reply to a supplementary question from Justin Wong Yung Bin (Independent-Sri Tanjong) who wanted to know whether the Sabah government was ready to increase poultry production.
Earlier, in response to Wong’s original question on the measures taken to address the sharp rise in chicken and egg prices in Sabah, Shahelmey said the current hike in chicken and egg prices in Sabah was due to the increase in input costs for poultry farming, especially animal feed which covered 70 per cent of production costs, apart from logistics, labour, utilities and medicines.
Shahelmey said among the approaches taken to address the price increase was through the issuance of notification letters under the Price Control and Anti-Profiteering Act 2011.
“Chicken and egg traders at the wholesale and retail levels have agreed to reduce their profit margins since Sept 11, 2021 to help consumers purchase the items at a reasonable retail price,” he said.
Apart from that, he said the Keluarga Malaysia Maximum Price Control Scheme, implemented by KPDNHEP from effective Dec 7 to 31, 2021, had also been extended to Feb 4 this year.
To continue to control the price of chicken and eggs, Shahelmey said, KPDNHEP had also set the retail price for standard chicken and eggs which took effect from Feb 5 until June 5.
“The Cabinet on Feb 9 also agreed to provide a subsidy of RM0.60 sen per kilogramme (kg) for poultry farmers and RM0.05 sen per egg for all grades,” he said.
