Recently, Loi Kok Liang, secretary of the Warisan Kota Kinabalu Division met with several pork merchants. After obtaining all aspects of information provided by pork merchants, he said that in the face of the shortage of pork in Sabah, the state government‘s policy is to issue more licenses to import frozen pork, although the problem of pork shortage has been temporarily solved, which can be accompanied by worrying concerns.
First, if the international epidemic pandemic occurs again, second, if swine fever occurs in countries that we import pork, the above two reasons will lead to a serious shortage of pork, and what will be the price of pork at that moment?
Therefore, Liang said that it is not a secure way for Sabah to rely on imported frozen pork, and it is the best way for Sabah to maintain the HIGH SELF-SUFFICIENCY RATE of pork.
To achieve a high self-sufficiency rate of Sabah pork, it is necessary to let a large number of pig farmers in Sabah state breed a large number of pigs. If pig farmers want to breed a large number of pigs, they need to have good for fresh pork first. In order to have good market for fresh pork, they must first make their prices competitive (with price of imported frozen pork).
Before the swine fever happened in Sabah, the price of live pigs sold by pig farmers in Sabah to pork merchants (butchers) was about RM10.80 per kilogram, while the price of pork merchants in the market was RM22-25 per kilogram. Nowadays, the price of live pigs in the state is RM18 per kilogram, and a live pig is between 90 and 120 kilograms. After removing the unusable parts such as blood and some internal organs, pork merchants are forced to adjust the price to RM35-38 per kilogram to sell to the market to make a tiny profit for the remaining part of pork .
The price of frozen pork on the market is RM22-26 per kilogram. Even if the quality of fresh pork is much better than imported frozen pork, consumers choose imported frozen pork based on price. If the price of live pigs of pig farmers can be reduced as much as possible to RM12-14 per kilogram, then the price of fresh pork in the market can be adjusted to RM25-30 per kilogram. The price of such fresh pork can compete with the price of imported frozen pork in the market. Then the market of fresh pork can be secured.
“There are still many small pork merchants on the market who do not have enough capital to set up a high Capital commercial freezer room, so they can’t apply for a license to import frozen pork. They are forced to continue to sell fresh pork, but the price makes the business bleak. In the end, it will also lead to many them who no longer doing this business.”
“If They no longer buy live pigs, and pig farmers will not want to raise more pigs, so The demand of Sabah market will depends more on imports. At that time, I‘m afraid that if there is any reason causing pork cannot be imported in the future, this will leads Sabah seriously short of pork. There is also a risk that the price will skyrocket, just like the white Rice issue which Malaysian is facing today,” Liang said.
The Secretary of Warisan KK also mentioned that in addition, many popular street food in Sabah are inseparable from pork, such as “Shang Nyuk Mee, Pan Mee, Bakuteh, etc., which are loved by tourists and Sabahans, and all these need fresh pork to maintain their deliciousness. Since pork also play an important role in Tourism besides the reason mentioned earlier, it is really necessary to maintain and improve the pork production chain in Sabah.
”I sincerely hope pig farmers to lower the price of live pigs, and at the same time, I sincerely wish the people of Sabah to support more fresh pork, so that both Sabah pork producers and consumers will have interests and protections in the future,” Liang finally added.
