CHICKEN traders said they shouldn’t be blamed for selling at higher prices as suppliers were the ones hiking up cost, said those working at the Chabang Tiga market in Kuala Terengganu, where several of them were fined RM500 recently for selling above the controlled price.

Traders at the market here told The Malaysian Insight they do not have the option to sell chicken at the current ceiling price of RM8.90 per kilogram as the suppliers’ price had increased to RM8.70.

One trader, Zulfakrul Amin, said asking traders to sell at a ceiling price of RM8.90 with a profit of only 20 sen per kilogram was absurd.

“A profit of 20 sen is very low and we can’t accept it.

“Multiplied by 100 kilograms of chicken per day, I make a profit of only RM20,” the 35-year old trader told The Malaysian Insight.

He said traders have to bear other burdens such as operating costs that include workers’ wages, plastic and ice of RM150 to RM200 per day.

“That is why I will stick to the sale of RM10 for a kilogram of chicken because it is cruel to ask us to sell at a lower ceiling price.

“In my 10 years in this business, we traders have always set a margin of RM1 to RM1.50, which we increase when other costs increase.

“But now we are not increasing our margins, yet we are being blamed,” he said.

A trader at the market was slapped with a summons by the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) last week. The incident was captured on video and shared on social media last Thursday.

In the clip, the affected trader voiced his disappointment at a Terengganu KPDNHEP enforcement officer after being fined RM500 at a time when many Muslims need funds to prepare for Hari Raya. He said the money spent on the fine could have been used for his son’s Hari Raya clothes.

The enforcement was a large-scale operation carried out by KPDNHEP in the market to monitor traders selling prices above the ceiling level.

The ceiling price for standard chicken is currently RM8.90 per kilo and is effective from February 5 to June 5.

KPDNHEP in a statement said it had fined a total of 11 traders, including a wholesaler, in the Kuala Terengganu market operation.

Commenting on the viral video, KPDNHEP said that all traders fined failed to submit proof to back up their claim that they had bought standard chicken at RM8.70 per kilogram from suppliers.

Ceiling price irrelevant
Zulfakrul said authorities should monitor farmers and producers if they really want to control the price of raw materials.

He criticised the ceiling price set by the government, calling it irrelevant, since the cost of goods and raw materials have increased.

Zulfakrul did not rule out the possibility of chicken stock rationing ahead of the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration next month.

“I think the control price is very outdated, it does not keep pace with the increase in goods and raw materials. The ministry has to take action, if you really want to control the price, go and monitor the farms and food producers.

Another trader who only wanted to be known as Faizal, 42, has decided to maintain his price of chicken at RM10 per kilogram even though he risked being fined again.

Faizal said KPDNHEP’s allegation that traders failed to submit invoices from suppliers was not true. He said he had given his purchase receipt to the officer.

“KPDNHEP knows the problem because this has been happening for a long time but has never been resolved. The ceiling price is not reasonable at all,” he said.

Faizal said on the day of the incident, he had to use his business capital to pay the summons.

He claimed that traders had previously told KPDNHEP officers that they could not sell at the ceiling price.

“The answer I got from a KPDNHEP officer was to just display the ceiling price (during enforcement rounds) and after that we can display our actual selling price.

”This, of course, raises complaints from customers,” said Faizal.

Another chicken seller Khairul Shaffiq, 31, said the issue of not submitting receipts should not have happened because KPDNHEP knew how much they were charged from suppliers.

Khairul said because of that, it was not appropriate to act against traders alone when action should have been against others in the chicken supply chain.

“It is harsh on us. It is not like we bought the chicken for RM5 then sold it at RM10.”

He said the government must be more serious in finding a solution and study the matter from the production side to address the issue. – April 10, 2022.