THE trend of panic buying has almost diminished and the supply of local white rice in the market is back to normal this week, Deputy Agriculture and Food Security Ministry Chan Foong Hin said.

He said the positive situation was due to the halt in panic buying by consumers and traders, compared to last week.

“The Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority’s (Fama) operations centre has distributed as much as 400 tonnes of local white rice per month. An additional 1,100 tonnes was distributed through all Fama networks to cater to the people’s need,” he said.

Chan said this after officiating at the 2023 World Rabies Day celebration in Kuala Lumpur today.

When asked about the possibility of an “unseen hand” taking advantage of the local white rice shortage, he said the matter should not be politicised.

He said hundreds of operations carried out by the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry had revealed that there were no wrongdoing or irregularity of such nature.

“We should devote our energy to more specific issues such as logistics, distribution and local rice stock, which are more efficient and effective,” he added. – Bernama, October 1, 2023.