Phua says only fresh red chillies are costlier at his Taman Perling wet market stall.
CONSUMERS in Johor Baru have been paying less for leafy green vegetables while prices of non-leafy vegetables have remained stable.
Vegetable seller Phua Ming Hui said that only fresh red chillies have gone up in price and are now being sold at RM18 per kg compared to RM16 per kg last month.
He said there had been no change to the price of fresh green chillies, which continue to be sold at RM16 per kg.
Cameron Highlands round cabbages were being sold for RM8 in May and June, he added.
Hendrian: Fewer vegetables exported to Singapore had contributed to drop in prices.
“The price of long purple brinjals has also remained at RM12 for the past two months,” Phua said when met at the Taman Perling wet market in Johor Baru.
He said bok choy, kangkung and spinach are now selling for RM6 per kg instead of the earlier price of RM9 per kg.
Phua explained that moderate sunshine and rainfall in Johor in recent weeks had contributed to good harvests.
“Non-leafy vegetables such as ladies’ fingers are also cheaper, having gone down from RM12 per kg to RM9 per kg.
“Cucumbers are also down, from RM8 per kg to RM5 per kg,” he said.
Fellow seller Hendrian Sapriadi said that apart from bountiful harvests, fewer Malaysian vegetables being exported to Singapore had also contributed to cheaper vegetables in Johor.
He explained that whenever demand for Malaysian vegetables goes up in the republic, consumers in Johor Baru have to fork out extra ringgit for their greens.
“However, cheaper vegetables have not translated into consumers buying more leafy greens,” he pointed out.
Ladies’ fingers, French beans, long purple brinjals and fresh red chillies are bestsellers at his stall regardless of price, he shared.
Hendrian also said that prices of sayur kampung such as winged beans, tapioca leaves and pucuk paku (fiddlehead ferns) also went down in recent weeks.
“On average, they have been selling for RM12 per kg in April and May whereas now, they are being sold for between RM9 per kg and RM10 per kg,” he said.
Malaysian Federation of Vegetable Farmers Associations president Lim Ser Kwee attributed the cheaper prices of greens to good weather conditions in past months.
“Most of our farmers are experiencing a good harvest and this is expected to last until October,” he said.
Lim explained that a surplus of vegetables in the market had also caused prices to drop, and that Singapore had reduced buying vegetables from Johor by about 10%.
Johor and Pahang are the two main vegetable producing states in Malaysia.
Most farms are in Batu Pahat and Simpang Renggam in Johor, and in Pahang’s Cameron Highlands.
