Rising rice price a signal for govt to continue focusing on food security, says PKR deputy information chief

KOTA KINABALU: The government must continue focusing more on boosting food security and improving infrastructure for sustainable food production in the country, says PKR.

PKR deputy information chief Razeef Rakimin said the recent fuss over the increased rice prices and the concern about whether the country has enough supply, could have been averted if there had been stable food security.

"If the then government had focused on strengthening food security instead of putting all the focus on industrialisation, we would not be having this problem now," he said in a statement.

Razeef said this happened because India, the world's largest rice supplier, had stopped the export of non-Basmati white rice.

India contributes about 40% of the global rice trade, and this situation is forcing other production countries, such as Myanmar, Vietnam and Thailand, to take similar actions and increase the price of rice, he said.

"Before this, the International Food Policy Research Institute had also warned about the rising commodity prices in India that will cause inflation of the world's food export," Razeef said.

"This could have been avoided if the former leaders had taken steps to improve food security in the country," he stressed.

He said local supply is not enough to meet domestic demand, and even states with the 'jelapang padi' (rice-born states) status cannot meet this demand.

Razeef said in the last general election (GE15) Pakatan Harapan had also spoken a lot on food security concerns and issues due to the rising cost of food and raw materials at that time, especially during the pandemic.

However, he said that the rising cost of living was not due to government failure but rather a global crisis due to domestic demands in export countries during the pandemic.

"If we compare the cost of raw materials in the country and those of other Asean countries, we can see that ours are among the cheapest," he said.

Razeef said the ability of the current government to control the price and supplies of goods shows that the nation is in good hands.

He said current initiatives to boost food security are also on the right track and must be continued and done properly.

"I am sure our nation under the leadership of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be able to get through the global problems and crises," he said.