Malaysians are up in arms over the inflating prices of vegetables after the Kuala Lumpur Vegetable Wholesalers Association (KLWA) reasoned it was due to floods and landslides in Cameron Highlands.

The prices released show cauliflower cost RM 16/kg from RM 7/kg, broccoli RM 20/kg to RM 8/kg and sawi with the biggest incline of RM 9/kg to RM 3/kg.

The LKWA President, Wong Keng Fatt, said, “The slow recovery of the economy is (also) making it difficult to bring in workers from overseas.”

Now Malaysians are worried that more items will face sharp inflation.

Billie Day questioned, “Where is the wakil of the Rakyat? Enforcement agencies need to do the work of monitoring and controlling the market prices of goods.”

He added that sometimes prices are intentionally priced higher to drive demand up.

Azlan Sunil feels that it may come to a point where the government needs to look to import vegetables.

“If our local farmers and middlemen are trying to take advantage by insisting on increasing the price by 100 to 200%, the government should look into the possibility of importing vegetables from neighbouring countries,” he said.

This would place a warning to the sellers, bringing back their senses to lower the price and ‘not hold us ransom’.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE