Fahmi denies govt controlling local white rice, cooking oil supplies for sale only at Madani Carnival

KUALA LUMPUR, June 1 — Communications Minister Fahmi Fadzil today rejected claims that the government is hoarding the supply of locally grown white rice so it will be sold only at its Kita Madani Carnival instead of the open market.

The government spokesman said he would check with the Agriculture and Food Safety Ministry to find out if such hoarding really happened, and added that the Anwar administration is working to stabilise the supply of white rice in the domestic market.

“One of them was that the government had modified the contract for the agency to buy imported rice, not local, as this could bring more than 20,000 tonnes of local rice back to the local market.

“While there are local rice reserves which have also started to be liquidated and taken out of storage, that process takes time,” he told reporters at the Kita Madani Carnival in Lembah Pantai here.

In March, the government decided to increase the local rice distribution in the market in order to curb the local rice shortage. as discussed with the National Cost of Living Action Council (Naccol).

In the parliament, Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Arthur Joseph Kurup said that it was discussed in the meeting with the National Cost of Living Action Council (Naccol).

He said that the initial step was the government to increase the distribution of local white rice in the market and the government will decide that all current available stocks of paddy and rice which have been bought by factories worth 140,000 metric tonnes will be processed and distributed for use in the local market effective immediately.

The third step was the reduction of local white rice retail prices by RM2 to RM3 which was effective on March 20