Food operators hope for costly pain to end soon

GEORGE TOWN: Nasi kandar operators are among those badly affected by the soaring vegetable prices.

But they are keeping their fingers crossed that the situation would ease once the Lunar New Year and Thaipusam festivals are over.

“Many people observe a vegetarian diet during Thaipusam, and during Chinese New Year, some vegetables are important for steamboat meals,” said Ajmer Ali, who owns a popular nasi kandar outlet in Jalan Masjid Kapitan Keling.

“That probably caused vegetables prices to increase due to demand.

“I believe prices will go down when the Thaipusam celebration is over,” he said.

Ajmer said the price of a sack of onions, which weighs about 7kg to 8kg, now costs between RM15 and RM19. It used to be between RM10 and RM11.

As for okra or lady’s fingers, another main ingredient for nasi kandar, he said its price had gone up and now costs about RM15 per kg.

The price, he said, had doubled.

“This is not good for small traders like me,” he said.

Nasi kandar trader Ikram Illias said the price increase was inevitable. As a food seller, he said he was resigned to such increases in the price of ingredients.

“No matter what, I can’t simply push up food prices as this will put off customers.

“Hopefully, the government can come up with a mechanism for keeping the price of raw items under control in future,” he said.

Faizan Ali, who has been in the nasi kandar business for more than 20 years, said the price of many ingredients used in nasi kandar had increased.

“It’s not just onions and okra, but also tomatoes, cabbage, brinjal and other vegetables. All their prices have doubled.”

Such increases, he said, had been going for a few months.

“Something must be done as our profit has been affected.

“The authorities should monitor the unreasonable price increase and take stern action against irresponsible middlemen who have been the cause of not only the price increase of vegetables, but other raw ingredients too,” he added.