KUALA LUMPUR: As tempers flare over the soaring price of chicken nationwide this Ramadan, raiding teams from the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry are finding traders, previously eager to shift the blame on wholesalers and suppliers, mum on the source of their supplies.
Deputy Minister Datuk Rosol Wahid said the traders compounded for inflating the price of the birds claimed that revealing the identity of their suppliers would mean the end of their supplies.
"When we ask them where they get their supply, they lament that it is already RM8.70 per kg when it reaches and they can't sell at the controlled price which is RM8.90 per kg.
"They can't risk ratting on their supplier because they are frightened that they won't get chicken anymore," he said during a walkabout at the Taman Permaisuri Ramadan bazaar in Cheras, here today.
Due to this, only four poultry farms and 13 wholesalers have been booked for selling chicken above the ceiling price, while 25 retailers were compounded for the same offence.
Rosol, however, said the traders were booked anyway as some of them had allegedly displayed one price and charged customers another price.
He said this was deceptive to both the consumer and enforcement officers.
"They list the price of chicken on their tags as RM8.90 per kg as per price control, but when it's actually priced after weighing, it is sold for RM9.20 or RM9.30 per kg," he said, adding that the buck does not stop there.
He explained that despite giving poultry farmers a subsidy of 60 sen for chicken feed to sell live chicken at RM5.60 to wholesalers who visited their farms, the birds were being sold at RM6.20 or RM6.30.
Rosol said as such, the government was looking at the entire supply chain now to ensure there is no cheating, exploitation and leakages because the entire supply chain was supported by such subsidies.
Overall, a total of 88 compounds were issued between April 3 and April 8; with 42 of them falling under the category of selling chicken above the ceiling price.
The other 46 compounds were issued exclusively to retailers for not using the special price control tags (40) or not displaying price tags at all (six).
Enforcement officers seized RM19,528 in goods and issued a total of RM45,500 in compounds.
The continuous rise in price of chicken feed, imported chickens and a global shortage of poultry due to the avian flu pandemic have been cited as official reasons as to why chicken prices have soared.
This goes back to Malaysia's over dependency on the imports of poultry as well as feed.
However, such price manipulation of chicken is also common during the major festive seasons as Ramadan and the ensuing Hari Raya Aidilfitri as well as during Chinese New Year.
Traders claim that a shortage in supplies of chicken and eggs that have persisted since the beginning of the year was to be blamed. Traders have also been forced to contend with transport costs of RM1 levelled on them since the government enforced the price control on chicken on Feb 5.
Those openly flouting the rule have also asked how chicken was supposed to retail at RM8.90 per kg based on the ceiling price, when the wholesale price of the birds were RM8.60.
On Thursday, the Consumers Association of Kedah (Cake) had also called on authorities to go after the hidden hands inflating prices of processed chicken.
Its secretary Yusrizal Yusoff called on the Domestic Trade and Consumers Affairs Ministry to carry out thorough investigations into the whole supply chain from the chicken farmers, suppliers, and so-called "middlemen" who were acting as "invisible hands" and inflating the prices.
On a separate issue, Rosol said the government was also looking at reinforcing the Control of Supplies Act, 1961, to step up enforcement on the leakages of subsidised RON95 fuel that was being misused to fill up vehicles that were registered in foreign countries. - NST
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