PETALING JAYA: Food vendors across the board, ranging from upscale restaurants to street food stalls, have all expressed concerns about having to raise their prices if the cost of ingredients continues to increase over the next two to three months.
The price of ingredients such as flour, seasoning, vegetables, and meat, particularly pork, has continued to rise since the second half of last year, The Malaysian Insight reports.
They suggested that the government offer incentives or subsidies for the purchase of ingredients.
Federation of Selangor Traders Association chairman Tan Luan Huat said traders can only absorb these increased costs for a limited period of time before they must pass them on to the consumers.
While some hawkers made small adjustments to menu prices to help cover their expenses, the costs of pork and vegetables continue to increase despite the apparent end in sight.
One of the causes of this trend is the African swine fever, which has significantly affected the pork supply in pig-rearing areas throughout the region.
For the moment, hawkers are holding off on another price hike, as they do not want to scare away their customers.
However, they cannot continue to absorb these extra costs indefinitely.
Tan is hoping that the government will listen to their concerns and provide hawkers with a subsidy to help offset the cost of some of the ingredients, or else they will be forced to increase their prices.
Meanwhile, the head of the complaints unit of the Federation of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur Hawkers Associations, Boon Kok Choon, stated that many of their members are appealing to their landlords, who own the coffee shops where they have their stalls, to reduce the rent of their stalls.
Some coffee shop owners have promised to reduce the rent by 5 to 15%, as they understand the difficulties these hawkers are facing after a year of pandemic.
