Malaysia's rice stocks sufficient for six months, fish for 240 days

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has sufficient rice stocks to meet domestic requirements for six months, while fish stocks, managed by fishermen's associations and industry players, can last up to 240 days, says Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu.

Mohamad said physical rice stocks stood at 1.193 million tonnes as at Sept 30, comprising 200,000 tonnes of national rice buffer stocks and 993,478 tonnes of commercial stocks.

"The total stock is stable and sufficient to meet requirements for a period of six months," he said in a written reply in the Dewan Rakyat.

For fish, he said stocks under the supervision of fishermen's associations stood at 247.98 tonnes as at August 31, while industry players held 9,690 tonnes.

He said the total supply from these stocks was estimated at 10,000 tonnes, based on daily demand of around 41.66 tonnes or monthly demand of 1,250 tonnes.

Mohamad was responding to a question by Datuk Seri Amirudin Shari (PH-Gombak), who asked the agriculture and food security minister to state the country's current reserves of essential food items, the impact of the war in the Middle East on imports of basic food items and the strategies taken by the government to safeguard national food security.

He said one impact of the war on food imports was a 28.15 per cent increase in the cost of agricultural inputs, particularly diammonium phosphate (DAP) fertiliser.

"DAP prices rose to US$793.50 (RM3,241) per tonne as at Aug 31, compared with US$626.50 per tonne in February.

"Higher domestic logistics costs had put pressure on local retail prices, while production machinery costs had increased due to uncontrolled fuel costs, particularly in the fisheries sector involving Zone C."