KUALA LUMPUR: Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) will ensure the price stability and adequate supply of rice even as the nation battles against Covid-19.
In a statement today, the national foodgrain management agency said while the price of rice had surged in the global market due to the pandemic, it was committed to monitoring and ensuring that the market price of the commodity here remained stable and affordable.
“As stated by the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry and other relevant ministries, food security and supply in the country are under control. The staple food of Malaysians is easily available and the retail price of rice remains as it was prior to the Covid-19 outbreak,” Bernas said.
It also said it had maintained the prices set for wholesalers for the local white rice and imported rice.
Bernas said it would bear the extra cost of rice or operations to maintain the stability of the market price.
It said this in response to a report which quoted the Malay Economic Action Council (MTEM) as saying rice millers and wholesalers were complaining of being squeezed by a “rice import cartel.”
Bernas refuted the statement by MTEM that it received a subsidy on rice imports and that such imports were being monopolised by the Agriculture and Food Industry Ministry. – April 22, 2020, Bernama
