Malaysiakini : Stockpile strategy
He said during the food crisis in the 1970s, the concept of a
national stockpile proved to be effective and its mechanism has been
used to this day.
“A stockpile policy provides the
government with the power and allocation to purchase and stock food
supplies and other necessities, including petrol and diesel, in bulk.
“The
stockpile is injected into the market when there is a supply disruption
that would cause prices to spike,” he said, adding that it can help
stabilise prices of necessities.
He
said there were various means of financial instruments that can be used
to build a national stockpile, including through hedging and future
contracts.
Therefore, he said the government should
emulate the United State’s National Commission on Supplies and
Shortages, which is an independent body tasked with building stockpiles
to manage the risk of food supply disruption.
“This
commission must be placed under Parliament with stringent oversight to
avoid its allocation intended for building stockpiles to be abused by
corrupt elements,” he said.
Aside from that, he said several ministries needed to be restructured and streamlined.
“By
right, the power and responsibility to formulate, implement, supervise
and enforce policies and laws relating to the food supply chain, from
production to distribution and determining prices, should be centralised
under one ministry.
“This will allow holistic
planning for the entire supply chain to be done more effectively without
overlapping authorities,” he said.
Fragmented supply-chain authority
At
present, he said authorities involved in the food supply chain are
divided into four ministries, namely the Agriculture and Food Industries
Ministry, Plantation Industries and Commodities Ministry, Domestic
Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Ministry, and International Trade and
Industry Ministry.
“This does not include tens of
agencies under these ministries. That is why any action takes a long
time without a minister being responsible.
“In the
end, matters of governance are mostly spent on meetings after meetings
and take months (to implement) because there are many ministers who need
to make the decision,” he said, adding that this is aggravated when
many of the ministers are busy politicking.
Rafizi
said if these measures were taken earlier, the cabinet would not need
to be flip-flopping on how to cope with the rising price of chicken.
On
June 21, the government announced that it will remove subsidies for
bottled cooking oil and lift the ceiling price for chicken and eggs.
Cooking oil in 1kg polybags will continue to be subsidised.
However,
three days later, the government made a U-turn, stating that it will
not allow the free float of chicken prices but will instead set a new
ceiling price.
The prices of eggs are still expected to be floated while the subsidy for bottled cooking oil was removed.
Amid the rising cost of food, the existing ceiling prices had led to a shortage in supply.
The
rising cost is fueled by soaring global inflation as supply chains
attempt to catch up with surging demand coming out of the Covid-19
pandemic as well as the Ukraine war, which has caused a shortage in
grains used as chicken feed.
Ukraine is the world’s second-biggest grain exporter in the world.
