Rice Shortage Umno Youth Leader Moots Bernas Restructuring

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Amid questions raised over the supply of local rice in the domestic market, an Umno Youth leader has revived a proposal to break a monopoly held by Bernas.
In making the call, Umno Youth exco Wan Zuhir Ghazali cited Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu’s statement that local and imported rice mixing has been a known practice tracing back to the 1970s, and there are no current laws outlining prosecution for offenders.
“The minister must take full responsibility. This issue touches the majority of people.
“Their struggles to cope with rising costs of living. Every cent out of the people’s pocket must be accounted for,” he said in a statement.
“I propose to restructure Bernas and encourage other new industry players.
“Bernas, as the sole party controlling rice import and distribution, must be restructured to dismantle restrictions against healthy competition within the industry,” said Wan Zuhir.
Transformation
Elaborating, Wan Zuhir proposed that under the restructuring, Bernas can be transformed into a company to monitor rice import and distribution by other local companies, including those owned by paddy farmers’ cooperatives.
The government should also set a special quota to ensure 60 percent of the domestic market is supplied with local rice, he added.
Umno Youth exco Wan Zuhir GhazaliAdditionally, Wan Zuhir said a short-term solution could entail the government introducing a targeted subsidy for rice, either in the form of cash transfer or other methods deemed suitable.
“How much longer do the people need to carry the burden of increasing price of rice due to the government’s lack of enforcement?” he questioned.
Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had outlined breaking existing monopolies over supply chains - mostly linked to politically connected elites - as among his administration’s top priorities since forming government in 2022.
Bernas’ concession was extended for a period of 10 years beginning Jan 11, 2021, until Jan 10, 2031, under the previous administration.
Separately, PAS Youth information chief Nadzir Helmi urged the government to intensify monitoring and enforcement operations, ensuring no manipulation of prices or stockpiling to affect the supply of rice in the market.
Nadzir cited a government reassurance that subsidised local rice will be available across Peninsular Malaysia from March 1 - through a RM150 million allocation to supply 24 million 10kg sacks of subsidised rice at RM2.60 per kg.
PAS Youth information chief Nadzir Helmi“However, PAS Youth still finds that to date there are numerous complaints about scarcity of supply.
“There are reports that local rice is now available at certain supermarkets in Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis, but the distribution is not quite through, and there are still delays,” he said.
Nadzir said the situation raises questions on effectiveness of the government’s distribution mechanism, and so concrete steps are needed to address the problems identified in the entire supply chain. -Mkini

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