Bernas: Some form of rice import monopoly needed

KUALA LUMPUR: Padiberas Nasional Bhd (Bernas) wants some form of rice import monopoly to be maintained, said chief executive officer Ismail Mohamed Yusoff.

"The system works and it should be maintained.

"However, if the Government wants to relook into it, we are very keen to work with them," he said after meeting up with the Council of Eminent Persons at Ilham Tower here Tuesday (June 12).

Besides importing rice, Ismail noted that Bernas also looked into the livelihood of some 150,000 paddy farmers, while ensuring fair price for their harvest.

"Rice is the only commodity which the government guarantees farmers a buy back.

"We take the profits made from rice imports and subsidise local paddy farmers," he added.

Ismail noted that Bernas operated only 28 out of 180 rice mills in the country, where between 650,000 metric tons and 800,000 metric tons tons of paddy is imported into the country per annum.

Asked if ending the rice monopoly would lower rice price, Ismail said this was unlikely.

"We have the cheapest price for rice with a bowl costing 26 sen.

"Even if we lowered it by just one sen, this would be mean local farmers will be affected," he said, adding that they supply some two million tons of paddy.

On food security, he said that Bernas' role as the "sole gatekeeper" was crucial in ensuring sufficient supply and stock of rice.

Besides the Government's three-month rice stockpile, he said that Bernas has stockpile for three months and two months' stockpile held by local suppliers.

At present, he said the nation imports about 650,000 metric tons of rice a year.

Last Wednesday (June 6), Agriculture and Agro-based Industry Minister Salahuddin Ayub announced the end of Bernas' monopoly to import rice.

Salahuddin said a working paper on breaking up the monopoly would be drafted following feedback from all stakeholders.

A day later, Salahuddin assured that the Government was not planning to close down Bernas, although the company's monopoly over the supply of rice has been reduced.

He said the plan was only to break the company's monopoly to supply rice by granting the same licence to several other companies.