GOVT URGED TO TACKLE RISING COST OF COOKING OIL
22 JAN 2021
By Wartawan Nabalu News
KOTA KINABALU: The government has been urged to take initiatives to suppress the increase of prices of essential items, particularly cooking oil, during the movement control order (MCO) in order to ease the burden of Sabahans.
Raising this concern was former Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry Datuk Junz Wong who opined that the lackadaisical attitude of the current government is the one to be blamed.
"Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices have soared while this may be good for state revenue and palm plantations, the normal everyday rakyat is feeling the pinch.
"The MCO and Emergency Declaration is already hurting Sabahans' pockets, now even the price of cooking oil from Kuala Lumpur have risen from RM20 plus to RM30 plus," he said in a statement today, adding that household brands like Red Eagle, Vesawit, Neptune and Buruh are currently priced about RM30 for a 5kg bottle when it used to be less than that.
Although stimulus packages were recently announced by the federal government, the prices of essential items like cooking oil continues to increase.
"Is this a case of assistance crossing from the right hand to the left hand? On one hand, assistance is given but on the other, prices of essentials are increasing, forcing the rakyat to pay more to survive," he said as quoted.
Junz who is also the vice president of Parti Warisan Sabah (Warisan) said retailers or factories cannot be blamed as these factors are market-driven, instead the federal and state governments who are in power now should be the ones to resolve the issue.
"You can blame and question the current government for the absence of proactive measures to help the rakyat. GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) and PN (Perikatan Nasional) have no incentive and drive to help the people."
He said, when Warisan was the government, many ideas and policies to help industrialise Sabah were executed, such as launching Sabah's first ever cooking oil - BESS in Tawau - in February last year.
Since then, two more Sabah's cooking oil brands were launched - GOLD in Sandakan (launched in July 2020) and Onsoi in Keningau (launched in September last year).
The products were launched simply because Sabah could benefit from its own raw materials instead of exporting to the peninsula.
"Sabah is very rich with raw materials like palm oil, but isn't it perplexing that for many decades, we export our raw materials to KL, process it in KL and then send it back to Sabah?"
"In the end Sabahans have to spend more to purchase cooking oil, despite planting oil palm in our backyard!" he exclaimed, adding that downstream producers in the peninsula are reaping all the profits from Sabahans.
Junz asserted that BESS, Gold and Onsoi brands were launched and executed thanks to Warisan President Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal who is far sighted and had a long-term sustainable vision for Sabah.
"We have created downstream industries more jobs for Sabahans, and now Sabahans have a few Sabah-brand cooking oils to choose as alternatives.
"Visit any supermarket near your area. You will find that BESS is still around RM20+ per 5kg bottle despite KL-imported cooking oil breaching RM30.
"We Sabahans still have BESS that is lesser affected by fluctuating prices. The impact is lesser on locally produced cooking oil, and thus Sabahans are able to enjoy positive impacts of Warisan's 26-months administration."
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