Allow Padi Farmers To Mill Sell Produce Directly To Consumers Govt Told

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Last week, the agriculture and food security ministry said the practice of mixing local and imported rice to sell at higher prices has been around for the past 50 years.
PETALING JAYA: Umno Youth chief Dr Akmal Saleh has urged the government to consider granting padi farmers the right to process and sell their produce directly to consumers.
Akmal said the government must empower the farmers through cooperatives or existing farmers’ associations by allowing them to mill their own padi into rice.
“By doing so, we can eliminate the middlemen who exploit farmers and deceive the public.
“If not, local rice will become something we hear about but can no longer find (in the market). I urge the agriculture and food security minister to consider this proposal,” he said in a Facebook post.
Last week, the ministry said the practice of mixing local and imported rice to sell at higher prices had been around for the past 50 years.
The ministry said a study conducted by the Malaysian Competition Commission (MyCC) last year found such activity had been going on since the 1970s, with no action taken on the matter.
It also said it had now decided to regulate this practice, after taking into account the views of farmers, consumers and industry players.
Akmal, who is the Merlimau assemblyman, said the price difference between local and imported rice was not as significant in the past compared with today where the gap was nearly RM6 to RM10 per kg.
He also said local white rice used to be readily available in most stores in the past but that today they had “disappeared” from the shelves.
“Yet, when we push for action against these culprits, the excuse given is that there is no clear legal provision to prosecute them.
“And in the end, the people are deceived by cartels and forced to buy local rice at imported rice prices,” he said.
The ministry had earlier stressed that the government was fully committed to investigating the shortage of local white rice in markets and the alleged mixing of rice by identifying and introducing new technology to detect the mixing of rice using DNA fingerprinting.
It also said that the Control of Padi and Rice Act and its subsidiary legislation did not provide clear provisions to prosecute those involved in the practice of rice mixing. - FMT

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