‘Go for canned santan to avoid paying more’

JOHOR BARU: The price of coconuts and santan (coconut milk) is set to increase and consumers are encouraged to use canned or packed santan to avoid paying more.

The price of coconuts increased by about 30% to 40% since November and is expected to rise further due to high demand from China and Thailand.

To compound the problem, Indonesian suppliers have cut back on the supply to Malaysia because China was offering higher prices.

Malaysia used to import about 10 million to 11 million coconuts from Indonesia monthly at RM900 per tonne.

“But now the coconut supply into Malaysia dropped to eight million nuts while the price increased to RM1,100 per tonne in November,” said Johor Federal Agricultural and Marketing Agency (Fama) market information officer Fakhrul Anwar.

He said as of Dec 15, the price went up to RM1,300 per tonne.

Fakhrul had accompanied state Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Ministry deputy director Mohamad Mokhtar Yeop to check on the prices at a hypermarket in Tampoi.

He said price of a coconut increased from RM2 to RM2.50 each, while the price of santan went up from RM9 to RM9.50 per kg compared with RM8 per kg in October.

Fakhrul said the price of coconuts is expected to increase further next year. Besides coconuts, Fakhrul said items such as cabbage, red chillies, long beans and leafy vegetables such as spinach, kangkung, kailan and sawi increased by about 15% to 20%.

“This is usually the case during the end of the year as it is wet and farm production is lower,” he said, adding that vegetable prices would usually return to normal in January.

Mohamad Mokhtar said 300 personnel would check on wet markets, hypermarkets and sundry shops in the state to prevent profiteering during Christmas.

“We want traders to adhere to the Christmas price control scheme for 13 items issued by the government,” he said at a press conference.

The items listed under the Christmas control scheme included chicken, imported turkey, eggs, tomatoes, green bell peppers and lamb.

This article originally appeared on: http://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2016/12/21/go-for-canned-santan-to-avoid-paying-more/