PETALING JAYA: Vegetable prices nationwide are expected to surge as supply in the markets dwindles.
Yet on the other hand, farmers are now having an abundance of produce where some of them have resorted to donating the vegetables or even dumping them.
The crux of the problem lies in the supply chain which has been broken by tighter control over movements in the wake of the Covid-19 crisis.
Supply to the Selayang wholesale market, the main feeder market for produce from Cameron Highlands and other parts of the country has been halted at least until Friday, and will remain closed to facilitate sanitisation work.
According to wholesalers, this makes it uneconomical to send the vegetables to the market.
Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association president Wong Keng Fatt said the wholesalers in Selayang have cancelled orders for vegetables, at least for the next few days.
“If we take delivery of the vegetables, we will have nowhere to send them to,” he said.
The usual practice is retailers will go to the Selayang wholesale market to pick up their supplies
“The retailers buy only in small quantities but we have only two or three-tonne lorries to transport the vegetables,” he told theSun yesterday.
“The lorry owners charge up to RM500 per trip for each lorry and since we have only a small amount to deliver, the returns will not even cover the transport cost,” he added.
“If there are big orders such as those from hypermarkets, the wholesalers would not hesitate to deliver.”
Wong expects prices to increase sharply now that wholesalers are reluctant to supply to the smaller retailers.
Apart from Selangor, retailers from Malacca, Negri Sembilan, Pahang and parts of Johor also get their supplies from the Selayang wholesale market.
However, the farmers will suffer a different fate. According to Cameron Highlands Agriculture Association chairman Ng Tien Khuan, with the wholesalers cancelling their orders, there will be an oversupply from the farms.
“We cannot sell to the middlemen, so we have no choice but to give away the vegetables,” Ng told theSun.
“There is only so much charity organisations can take, so we may end up throwing away the rest,” he added.
It is important to note that vegetable farmers have already been facing huge losses amid supply disruptions since the movement control order was imposed more than a month ago. Their efforts to donate the produce has also added to their costs.
Ng said it would be impossible for the farmers to deliver the vegetables to individual markets.
“Normally, a 15-tonne lorry picks up the vegetables from the farms in Cameron Highlands.
“They cannot segregate the vegetables by type and according to each seller’s needs.”
“We do not have such a system in place,” he added.
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