'More expensive than meat' - Vegetable growers appeal to the government for help

Vegetable growers and traders urged the government to address the issue of labor shortage as well as other issues that are leading to the increase in vegetable prices at the moment.

Cameron Highlands Vegetable Growers Association secretary Chay Ee Mong said the labor shortage problem faced by 2,000 farmers there was exacerbated when they failed to maintain the existing workforce, even after raising their monthly salary by 30 per cent, to RM1,800.

He said this was because the plantation and construction sectors faced the same labor shortage problem since the government froze the hiring of foreign workers in 2018.

"Foreign workers are offered up to RM3,000 a month and farmers cannot afford to follow suit. The plantation sector is able to do so as the future price of crude palm oil rises to RM5,000 per tonne.

"As for us, we have applied for manpower and paid all the necessary payments, but we lost employees due to higher salaries," he told Malaysiakini .

"We need up to four workers per acre of orchard. Without manpower, we have to reduce production," he said, adding that the issue needed to be resolved as it was unfair for farmers who could not compete with players with stronger financial capabilities in the construction sector. and plantations.

'Bad weather, expensive steel'

The Penang Consumers Association (CAP) recently raised concerns after finding that the prices of a number of vegetables have risen by up to 200 per cent over the past two weeks.

According to CAP, the price of short mustard increased from RM3 to RM9 per kg, the price of broccoli increased from RM8 to RM20 per kg, and the price of cauliflower increased from RM7 to RM16 per kg.

As such, it urged the government to take immediate steps to address the matter.

Chai said another factor behind the price hike was bad weather, with farmers having to deal with heavy rains, cloudy weather, low temperatures and landslides in Cameron Highlands.

"Bad weather further reduces our production capacity and affects its quality. Unpredictable weather is a worldwide phenomenon that has hit vegetable -producing countries in the region.

"We are also affected by the increase in the cost of plastic materials because we rely heavily on it to protect vegetables from heavy rains and they need to be changed every three or four years. The price has risen to RM200,000 per acre from RM130,000 previously," he said.

Adding to the problem, Chai said, was rising prices of imported pesticides and fertilizers.

The increase comes after electricity rationing measures in China, which affected the manufacturing industry there.

"For example, the urea fertilizer that we import from China - the global price of urea has risen from RM1,000 to RM, 4,000, and we continue to face a shortage of fertilizer supply that occurs around the world.

"We were told the price of fertilizer will continue to rise next year," he added.

High prices are expected until Chinese New Year

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association president Wong Keng Fatt blamed bad weather conditions since November for the increase in vegetable prices. He expects prices to remain high until the Chinese New Year festive season early next year.

“While in the past the end -of -year monsoon season will indeed have an impact on vegetable production, the current weather is worse with cloudy and heavy rain every day.

“Vegetable production is reduced by 30 to 50 per cent with good photosynthesis not happening, and causing price increases especially green vegetables.

"During the rainy season, more damaged vegetables are discarded. This will be considered a cost by traders," he added.

However, Wong said not all vegetables were facing price increases, saying wholesale prices for beans, pumpkins and tomatoes remained the same or had decreased.

However, he acknowledged that the price of import payments is now more expensive following the decline in production in countries such as China, Thailand and Vietnam.

“These countries are either affected by cold weather or floods,” he added.

'Meat is cheaper'

A vegetable seller who only wanted to be known as Tan said the higher cost of downstream production forced sellers to sell more than half of their vegetables at markets in the Klang Valley.

"Why do I say that? Sellers usually get their supply of vegetables at the wholesale market, unlike supermarkets which get them directly from the garden," said Tan, who owns a stall at the Jalan Klang Lama market.

"For example, short mustard, the price went up to RM8 per kilogram compared to October. The price of imported cauliflower went up to RM13 to RM20, compared to RM6 per kilogram previously.

“In fact, vegetable prices remained high during the Covid-19 outbreak for a variety of reasons, and this time the reason was bad weather.

“There are customers who understand the situation we are facing and joke that‘ now it is more expensive to buy vegetables than to buy fish and meat ’,” he lamented.

Earlier, Minister of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Datuk Seri Alexander Nanta Linggi said several action plans were being drawn up to help industries facing rising production costs.

Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced an allocation of RM262 million to help farmers and farmers affected by the increase in pesticide and fertilizer prices.

It includes RM200 million for interest -free agro -food loans as well as a six -month payment moratorium, as well as RM62 million for paddy incentives and subsidies

The Ministry of Industry explores the potential for cooperation between the Indonesian-Taiwan food and beverage industry

Cooperation between the two countries needs to be encouraged to meet global demand for food products

The Ministry of Industry's Directorate General of Agro Industry is exploring cooperation among stakeholders in the food and beverage industry sector, one of which is with industries originating from Taiwan.

"Cooperation between the two countries needs to be encouraged to meet global demand for food products," said Acting Director General of Agro Industry at the Ministry of Industry Putu Juli Ardika in a statement received in Jakarta, Saturday.

Putu conveyed this in The 3rd Indonesia-Taiwan Dialogue on The Food Industry which was held on a hybrid basis.

The activity was carried out together with the Indonesian Economic and Trade Office (IETO) in Taipei and was attended by the food and beverage industry stakeholders.

This cooperation meeting also puts forward industrial collaboration with various domestic parties such as the Association of Indonesian Food and Beverage Producers (Gapmmi), researchers from the Bogor Agricultural University (IPB), the Center for Agro Industry (BBIA) and the Center for Chemical and Packaging (BBKK). ).

"We hope that this forum can bring benefits to the food and beverage industry of the two countries, as well as increase trade and investment between the two countries as part of the global supply chain. In the future, we hope that this forum can create and enhance cooperation in the use of appropriate technology, especially for small and medium industries," said Putu.

Secretary of the Directorate General of Agro Industry at the Ministry of Industry, Mohammad Ari Kurnia Taufik, who acted as co-chair at the dialogue, also requested that this forum be utilized as much as possible by all parties.

"In addition to increasing trade between the two countries, we also have a target for this food dialogue forum to also provide benefits for Indonesia in the form of technology transfer and cooperation to improve food quality while also inviting companies from Taiwan to invest, especially in sectors that are making downstream breakthroughs. , "explained Ari.

In this forum, several agendas were discussed, including opportunities for cooperation in the downstream field of porang, development of forage feed concentrates, plant-based foods that have a texture such as meat, analysis of food contact materials, analysis of microplastics, and analysis of pesticides on essential oils.

On this occasion, the Taiwanese side through the Bureau of Foreign Trade Ministry of Economic Affairs and the FIRDI research institute expressed a positive response for increasing cooperation. One of the things offered is industry 4.0 supporting technology.

“Taiwan will follow up on Indonesian proposals discussed in the dialogue agenda. Furthermore, there are several proposals for cooperation from Indonesia that require comprehensive proposals to make it easier to link and match with companies from Taiwan," said Ari.

Ari explained that the government is trying to optimize the great potential of porang.

"We strive so that local glucomannan flour can match the quality of imported products, so that later it can also become part of the global supply chain, apart from being used by domestic industries, especially food and beverage," he said.

In addition, Indonesia also proposed a theme for the upcoming dialogue related to the food and feed industry.

“The feed industry or animal feed industry is one of the important factors in the development of the food and beverage industry. A good and sustainable feed supply will also encourage the food and beverage industry in the future," he added.

The Secretary General of the Agro Industry Ministry of Industry explained that the ideas of cooperation from Indonesia in the forum were well received by Taiwan.

"The next step, in the near future we will immediately follow up on the results of this meeting together with relevant stakeholders," he said.

Chairman of Gapmmi Adhi S. Lukman said that the technology for producing downstream porang products, such as glucomannan flour, has not been fully controlled by the domestic industry.

"The cooperation with Taiwan is expected to improve the mastery of industrial technology in producing downstream porang," said Adhi.