MALAYSIAN GOVERNMEENT will maintain the price of local white rice at RM2.60 per kg with RM150 million allocated to absorb production costs over the next six months as re[ported recently. According to Agriculture and Food Security Minister has said this move is aimed at ensuring the continued availability of 24 million sacks of local white rice in the market. Told reported that the reform efforts will take one year. There will be another announcement in the second half of the year. Ministry said this move is aimed at ensuring the continued availability of 24 million sacks of local white rice in the market, adding that the ministry will finalise the implementation mechanism and provide further details once the plan is fully confirmed. The floor price of padi will be revised to RM1,500 per tonne, up from RM1,300 per tonne, effective Feb 16 2025. The price adjustment considers the increasing costs of labour and agricultural inputs, such as fertilisers and pesticides. This article ini "Anim Agriculture Technology" blog I write about an issue reported by local media regarding local white rice price in Malaysia.
Refering to a local NST report titled 'Standardise rice prices to create 'win-win' situation, govt told' where the government has been told to standardise white rice prices at a single grade, priced between RM32 and RM34 per 10kg pack, regardless of whether the rice is locally produced or imported. This move is seen as essential to create a 'win-win' solution for all stakeholders, as several major mills are allegedly mixing local white rice with imported rice before repackaging and selling it under imported rice labels at significantly higher prices. Report from a coalition of Rice Millers Malaysia chairman Marzhuki Othman said the current ceiling price of RM26 for a 10kg pack of local white rice is outdated and in need of revision. The price of local rice at RM26 per 10kg has remained unchanged for over 16 years, back when the minimum padi purchase price was only about RM950 per metric tonne. Now with the government now setting the minimum padi purchase price at RM1,300 per metric tonne, millers are facing losses. Therefore, the price of rice should be raised to RM32–RM34 to align with the current floor price for padi. This adjustment would ensure that all parties in the supply chain, including millers, wholesalers, and farmers, are not burdened by rising costs. Marzhuki alleged that some major millers have resorted to mixing local white rice with imported varieties, labelling them as imported rice to justify higher prices. They know that at least 62 per cent of the contents in these so-called imported rice packs consist of local white rice. This practice is likely aimed at avoiding the losses faced by smaller millers like us. Consequently, smaller millers are suffering an average annual loss of RM900 million collectively due to increased padi purchase prices while rice prices remain low. With the minimum purchase price of padi set at RM1,300 per metric tonne, Marzhuki warned of a potential 'price war' among major millers who have their own wholesale networks. They could offer farmers as much as RM1,800 per metric tonne, as desired by farmers, but this would significantly impact smaller millers like us in which at the current purchase price of RM1,300 per metric tonne, combined with rice being sold at RM26 per 10kg pack, millers are incurring losses of RM600 per metric tonne of rice produced. If local white rice production stands at around 1.5 million metric tonnes annually, it's no surprise that the 70 rice mills in the country collectively face losses of up to RM900 million a year," he said. He who operates a rice mill in Perlis, said the situation has led to many millers shutting down operations due to unsustainable losses. recently only about 10 mills are still operating, and even they are barely surviving, with some on the brink of closure after enduring losses for the past two years. The padi farmers in Perlis, Kedah, Penang, and Perak have staged protests, calling on the government to raise the minimum padi purchase price to RM1,800 per metric tonne.
Other related report 'The Kedah Consumers Association (Cake) says it was high time the government reviewed the RM2.60 per kilogramme ceiling price' for local white rice to address its supply shortage in the market is related (See photo above). Its president, Mohd Yusrizal Yusoff, said the price, which was last reviewed 17 years ago, is no longer relevant to the current situation, particularly the global price hike of the grain. He said while Cake welcomes the government's move to retain the ceiling price of local white rice, it is worried the supply shortage would be prevalent due to unscrupulous activity of mixing local produce with imported white rice. They believe local white rice is missing because of the global price hike, leading to a higher cost of importing white rice, while the price of local white is way cheaper. This leads to an unscrupulous act of mixing imported rice with local white rice in a pack and selling the rice at a higher price (imported rice price). There is a lack of enforcement, and we hope to see a sound policy to address this issue. They support calls by farmers to review the local white rice price and set a new price that is reasonable so that the people will not be burdened and at the same time, there is a sufficient supply (of local white rice in the market. Earlier Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu announced a revised padi floor price from RM1,300 per metric tonne to RM1,500, effective this Sunday. He informed the Dewan Rakyat that the decision was taken considering the rising costs of wages, agricultural input, and the impact on rice production costs. Also announced that the government would maintain the price of local white rice at RM2.60 per kg, with RM150 million allocated to absorb production costs over the next six months. Yusrizal said Cake shared farmers' sentiments that the RM1,500 per metric tonne floor price set by the government falls short of their production cost. Despite the hike announced by the government, the floor price is considered lower compared to the rising padi cultivation costs. Today the farmers are burdened by rising costs of fertilisers, pesticides and seed that have jumped to nearly 100 per cent, with their cultivation cost having surged to nearly RM1,600 per metric tonne. Farmers who are working on small-sized, padi fields are the most affected because, on average, they are earning less than RM1,500 per month. Thanks...
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