TAWAU, April 3 — Distressed by constant increase of pork prices over the past few months, a group of disgruntled consumers here has urged the state government and the relevant authority, like the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, to intervene to address the issue promptly and effectively.
Records obtained by them from the local butchers indicated that the price of pork in Tawau has increased four times since the middle of last December. The first time was on December 15, 2021 (increased by RM2 per kg), second time was on January 1, 2022 (increase by RM2 per kg), followed by another RM2 increase a week later, on January 7, and the fourth time was on February 5, this time by RM3 per kg.
“Such a constant price increase for pork is ‘unprecedented’, ‘ludicrous’ and ‘unacceptable’, and it is affecting every category of consumers, right from the suppliers to the butchers, eateries and restaurants, and the households.
“The low-income households are especially hardest hit since they were already reeling from the escalating cost of living, even before the Covid-19 pandemic,” lamented the group’s spokesperson, Peter Sim, who is a prominent Chinese community leader, in a statement yesterday.
Sim said while he’s fully aware of the ongoing inflation facing the entire world, mainly due to rising fuel prices, and Malaysia is not spared, he nonetheless opined that the state government and the relevant authority should not be oblivion to this issue of constant increase of pork prices, simply because it only affects the non-Muslims.
“We call on the state government and the relevant authority to immediately step in to better regulate the pork prices in the market. We believe they are capable of tackling this issue effectively,” he urged.
He opined that the government should include pork under the price control scheme, like other types of meat, to prevent indiscriminate price hike and profiteering.
“The relevant authority should also conduct a thorough investigation to ascertain if pig farms are taking advantage of the current market situation to maximize their profit,” he added.
Sim then reminded the fact that Sabah produces around 8,642 tonnes of pork valued at about RM155 million per year, and some of them were exported to Sarawak and Singapore, as recently told by Sabah Agriculture and Fisheries Minister Datuk Seri Jeffrey Kitingan. This means Sabah should not be facing pork supply shortage, hence should not be cited as the contributing factor to pork price increase.
In regards to the usual claim by pig farms that hike in pork prices is due to the rising costs of feeds, Sim contended that since the state government has a big plan underway to gradually relocate all 44 pig farms throughout the state to a centralised pig farm, which is the Pig Farming Area (PFA) in Tongod, it should have by now figured out how best to produce animal feeds in Sabah, in a cost-effective manner.
Besides this, he also hoped the Chinese elected representatives, Chinese guilds and associations in Tawau could be more alert to the plights of the Chinese community in the district, and to promptly bring them to the attention of the state government or the relevant authorities. — Borneo Post
