AYER Hitam MP Wee Ka Siong hogged the limelight in the Dewan Rakyat today by whipping out three eggs to illustrate his arguments during a debate.

Wee, who has frequently raised the egg supply problem, produced an egg imported from India, a local egg and an “Omega” egg for comparing their sizes and prices.

“In this context, I brought an egg from India, which I bought for 50 sen. And here is a Malaysian egg (showing a locally produced egg) whose price is controlled, at 45 sen. We can see the difference in size,” he said when interjecting Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu’s speech in winding up the debate on the motion of thanks to the royal address.

“If you notice, the egg from India costing 50 sen is smaller than the Malaysian egg. This is where it is lacking.

“If you talk about ‘Omega’ egg, kampung egg, it’s 76 sen. The rich can afford to buy, but this is the source (showing Malaysian egg) for helping small and medium enterprises, especially Malays, for making cakes.”

Wee said the government should solve the problem before Ramadan.

Mohamad said the government will continue to give subsidies to chicken breeders and egg producers until June before reviewing them.

He said the move to import eggs from India was a temporary measure to meet demand.

He said a Bumiputera egg producing company had told him that manpower shortage was among the factors affecting egg production.

“This producer is capable of producing 500,000 eggs a day, but it had to shut down one plant due to a lack of workers, cutting its output to only 300,000 eggs,” he said.

“With the measures taken by the government from January to March to facilitate the entry of workers (plan on relaxation in the hiring of foreign workers), we could see an increase in the number of workers in this sector, including at the chicken farm mentioned earlier. So, the situation will improve.” – Bernama, February 22, 2023.