Consumers are lamenting the sharp increase of chicken poultry prices forcing them to spend more.
Nooraini Dollah, 58, a housewife, found that the price of chicken she usually buys from a grocery store near her house has gone up.
“The chicken here usually costs RM8.50 to RM8.80 per kilogram,” she mentioned. “I realised that some other stores had also increased the price, even going up to RM9.50 per kilo.”
Another housewife in her 40s, Mariatulhafizah Ahmad Sani bought her chickens at a much lower pricing, which is RM8 per kilo in the early duration of the Movement Control Order (MCO).
“But the price has now increased by more than RM1,” she bemoaned. “Some even went up to as high as RM9.60 per kilo! It was just RM8.80 per kilo last week.
“For instance, I bought a chicken which weighed around two kilos for RM20.60 just a few days ago,” Mariatulhafizah noted. “Previously, it was at RM16.60 for the same weight, which is an obvious hike in price.”
For private sector employee Mohd Syarie Mutalib, 43, he bought a chicken for RM9.50 per kilo compared to just RM9 last week. It was bought at a wet market near his residence in Pengkalan.
“The seller cited the price hike from poultry wholesalers too, possibly due to the increase of livestock food costs,” he explained.
“We’ve no choice. Chicken has to be bought for kitchen food stock,” Syarie expressed. “However one may feel, we still have to pay the price demanded.”
Despite that, he admitted that fresh chickens sold in grocery stores are much costlier than the ones sold in supermarkets.
Meanwhile, the average price of daily commodities at retail level for Kinta district by the Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (FAMA) is at RM8.80 per kilo for standard processed chicken poultry. The price ceiling is at the same rate.
Rosli Mansor
