KUALA LUMPUR: The proposal to designate the National Farmers Organisation (NAFAS) as an alternative rice importer and local white rice producer will be presented at tomorrow’s meeting of the National Action Council on Cost of Living (NACCOL), said Datuk Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz Syed Abdul Fasal (pix).
The NACCOL Task Force (Food Cluster) chairman said that NAFAS’s direct involvement is a step to stabilise rice prices and ensure a sufficient supply of local white rice.
“NAFAS is ready to be an alternative rice importer if Bernas (Padiberas Nasional Berhad) is not willing to procure competitively priced (imported) rice to meet local needs.
“… involvement from the beginning, from land preparation to rice production and distribution, can be managed by NAFAS, and they are ready to assist the government in facing pressures from cartels and then to sell rice at reasonable, stable and harmonised prices,“ he told a press conference at Parliament Building here today.
He said that NAFAS, through farmers at the district and state levels, has the capacity, including existing facilities such as mills, purchasing centres and wholesale licences, for the rice industry.
Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz said there are still exporters from India, Pakistan, Cambodia and Vietnam in the open market outside the country which can offer more competitive prices.
He said the involvement of NAFAS could help to check the activities of cartels, whose price manipulation partly led to an increase in the people’s cost of living.
Syed Abu Hussin Hafiz, who is also the MP for Bukit Gantang, had earlier claimed that white rice shortages and price hikes were caused by a local cartel of four or five companies controlling the buying and selling of padi.
He said this issue would also be discussed at the NACCOL meeting so that the government can take firm action against these companies. –Bernama
