Selangor Journal
Shoppers grab the chance to buy essential items at afforadable prices at the Jualan Prihatin Rakyat programme in Kampung Padang Jawa, Shah Alam, on April 10, 2022. — Picture by REMY ARIFIN SELANGORKINI

Affordable goods sale a success, to continue during festive seasons – MB

By Alang Bendahara

SHAH ALAM, July 26 — Selangor has gone beyond its means to address the rising costs of goods through its Ehsan Food Prices Intervention Programme that began in February this year.

Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari said that the Jualan Prihatin Rakyat programme, which delivers fresh items at cheaper costs than the market price, has allowed the state administration to demonstrate its capabilities in solving the people’s woes, even if it was not the state’s responsibility to do so.

“Even though this is outside the purview of the state government and under the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, it has proven that we are capable of overcoming this issue and helping the people.

“From February until April, the affordable goods sale was held at 53 state constituencies. While in conjunction with the Hari Raya Aidilfitri season, it was held in eight state constituencies and five state constituencies during the Hari Raya Aidiladha season.

“A total of 132,000 chickens, 60,000 trays of chicken eggs and 66,000 packets of cooking oil were sold through the programme,” he said in response to a query from Sungai Burong state assemblyman Datuk Shamsudin Lias on actions taken by the state government to address the rising cost of living during the Selangor State Legislative Assembly, here today.

Amirudin said that the effort was made possible by the state-owned Selangor Agricultural Development Corporation (PKPS) poultry farms, which have a capacity to produce 200,000 chickens per cycle, as well as through collaborations with chicken breeders who leased state lands for their farms.

However, he said that the state government do not plan to continue with the intervention programme for an extended period of time as it would cause market disruption.

“We do not want to disrupt the market for too long. If we do so, it will affect the supply chain and perhaps prices will increase. The intervention will only be for two to three months,” he said.

Amirudin continued by saying that the state government would keep offering affordable sales of goods during the festive seasons to provide farmers more opportunities to market their goods.

“We will definitely do it during the festive seasons to help reduce the burden of the people in their preparation for the celebrations,” he said.

Amirudin added that he had also instructed the state executive councillor agriculture modernisation and agro-based industry Izham Hashim to look into finding a solution to address the rising cooking oil prices as part of the following stage of the intervention programme.

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