GEORGE TOWN: The Agriculture and Food Security Ministry has been urged to look into possible involvement of "cartels" due to the shortage of egg supply in the market as well as increase in prices over the past six months.
The Consumers' Association of Penang (CAP) president Mohideen Abdul Kader said the matter was perplexing since Malaysia produced enough chicken eggs, to the extent of exporting them.
"But why is there suddenly not enough chicken eggs in the market now? This needs to be probed.
"Is this plan by the cartels to increase the price of eggs? Are they slaughtering the egg-laying chickens, resulting in the reduction of supply?
"The ministry, led by Mohamad Sabu, must set up a committee to investigate possible cartel involvement, which is manipulating the market," he said.
He was asked on the shortage of food in the market, including chicken eggs and chicken, in the last six months.
Mohideen said while it was right for the government to import chicken eggs to meet the supply, it was only a short-term measure.
It was reported that Malaysia would temporarily import chicken eggs as a stopgap measure to address the country's egg supply shortage until a long-term solution is found.
Mohamad had said that the short-term solution was vital to ensure the food security of Malaysians, and in the long run, the government would need to formulate a long-term food security policy.
He said Malaysia should look into producing its own food supplies and chicken feed to reduce costs and ensure self sufficiency.
"As it is, we are importing many food supplies from other countries such as meat, about 70 per cent, and chicken feed.
"As such, we should come up with policies for the country to produce our own food supplies by focusing more on agriculture and the food supply industries," he added. - NST
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