It’s reality, not an excuse, veggie farmers tell Mydin boss

 

Farmers had warned of a potential 40% drop in the supply of vegetables due to rising costs and a labour crisis.

PETALING JAYA: Vegetable farmers’ associations have criticised Ameer Ali Mydin for telling the industry not to use the lack of foreign workers as an excuse to justify price hikes.

Penang Vegetable Farmers Association deputy chairman Ibrahim Roslan said the agricultural industry’s worker shortage was a genuine challenge faced by farmers and its effects were being felt by the public as well.

“We cannot accept (Ameer’s statement), the shortage of workers has a negative impact, not just on farmers but also on the people who will bear the consequences.

“When supply decreases, prices will increase,” he told FMT.

Ameer, the managing director of the Mydin hypermarket chain, had told vegetable farmers to “stop making excuses” to justify a price increase.

Amid warnings of a potential 40% drop in the supply of vegetables due to rising costs and a labour crisis, he said there ought to be sufficient supply of labour since many foreign workers had been allowed into the country in previous years.

Ibrahim said it was not solely the shortage of workers that was contributing to the decline in production, pointing out that changes in weather and seed supply also played significant roles.

“When vegetable prices increase, farmers are blamed, yet we depend on weather conditions and on seeds. If crops fail, there’s nothing we can do, the market is left without produce,” he said.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Federation of Vegetable Farmers Association president Lim Ser Kwee said most foreign workers would return to their home countries to celebrate Aidilfitri, and that not all of them would return to Malaysia after that.

He said this becomes an even bigger problem when the government halts the intake of foreign workers.

“For example, if we have a quota of 30% but only 10% return to Malaysia, after the March 31 deadline passes, then the quota is closed – no more workers can enter.

“To apply for the quota again, we must wait another year, and the process of applying for that quota is not straightforward,” he said.

Lim was referring to the home ministry’s announcement earlier this month that active foreign worker quotas would be voided if calling visas, also known as visas with reference, were not issued by March 31.

Home minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail also said that from June 1, Putrajaya would not allow foreign workers into the country under these active quotas. Employers who paid the levy for scrapped quotas would be refunded.- FMT