Consumer group slams call to ban foreigners from buying local rice

 

Last week, the government announced a restriction on the sale of local white rice to 100kg per customer as a temporary measure until supply normalises.

PETALING JAYA: A consumer group has criticised a proposal by a state exco member for foreigners to be barred from buying local rice  to solve the current shortage.

Malaysia Consumers’ Movement deputy president Beninder Singh said denying foreigners from buying locally produced rice was not the solution as many complex economic issues were at play in causing the shortage of local rice in the market.

He said it would be most unfair to foreigners as they also contributed to the country’s economy by paying income tax to the government.

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Beninder Singh.

“We must accept the fact that these foreigners have significantly contributed to our nation’s development and they continue to do so.

“They are also human beings and we must show empathy and cannot simply ignore them in times of need,” Beninder told FMT.

On Thursday, Melaka rural development, agriculture and food security committee chairman Dr Akmal Saleh urged the government to restrict the purchase of locally produced rice to Malaysians.

Akmal, who is also the Umno Youth chief, said such a policy was necessary in view of the shortage of local white rice, and priority should be given to Malaysians as local rice was subsidised by the government.

However, Azman Mahmood, of the agriculture and food security ministry’s padi and rice regulatory division, said Akmal’s suggestion was impractical as it would require businesses to determine their customer’s citizenship.

“The proposal looks good, but what about its implementation? That is what we need to consider together,” Azman said.

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He said the government’s restriction on the sale of local white rice to 100kg per customer was sufficient to address the shortage.

The restriction, announced last week by the agriculture and food security ministry, aimed to address disruptions in the supply of rice.

Noting that some traders were found to be buying up to 7,000kg of local white rice, the ministry said the purchase limit would last until the supply of local white rice normalises.

Paul Selvaraj.

Federation of Malaysian Consumers Associations (Fomca) CEO Paul Selvaraj said the government should look at long-term solutions to solve the country’s food security problem, especially for locally produced rice.

He said the production of local rice should be increased to ensure food security for Malaysians.

“The government has to be serious about this (food security). We have been talking about self-sufficiency. We need to make a serious effort in implementing such a policy.

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“If we depend on imports, not only for rice but for all our food, not only are we going to waste a lot of money, we will have problems every time some other country has problems,” Selvaraj said.- FMT