KUALA LUMPUR, May 19 (Bernama) — Wheat supply is expected to be affected by India banning the export of its wheat, according to the local wheat flour producers.
Bidara Flour Sdn Bhd marketing manager, Arifin Aziz said the company, however, would not be badly affected by the ban as it imported wheat flour from India and not the grains. Hence, there will be no issue of supply.
“Our stock of wheat flour can still meet the demand for the three or four coming months,” he said, adding that the local industry players were already prepared for a supply shortage of wheat flour following the outbreak of war between Ukraine and Russia.
“There are two issues here, which are the ban of wheat grain export by India and the war in Ukraine. Hence, the companies and factories in Malaysia have taken the measure of getting the supply earlier and keeping a stock of the commodity.
Meanwhile, Faiza Food Sdn Bhd plant manager, Nor Haida Ishak said the company had been assured verbally that its supply order for wheat flour for the next two months would not be affected by its supplier in India.
“Currently, our company has a supply stock of 300 tonnes which can meet the sales demand for two weeks,” she said.
However, both companies did not deny that the sale price of wheat flour might increase due to the lower value of the Malaysian ringgit and rise in the price of raw materials.
Arifin said Bidara Flour expected the sale price to increase due to the hike in the price of wheat across the world, besides the market instability and shrinking value of the ringgit.
“We expect the price of wheat to increase by 30 per cent within the next six months,” he added.
Nor Haida said Faiza Food had been noticing the rise in the price of raw materials since early this year and had warned that there would be a spill-over to the domestic market.
“We are still taking the approach of waiting it out as we do not want to increase the market price. However, the market price may have to be increased in the next two to three months,” she added.
Recently, India was reported to have banned the export of wheat to ensure its food security which is worrying due to the heat wave phenomenon which has affected its wheat output.
Following this, Malaysia’s Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs reportedly expected the supply of wheat flour to be not adversely affected as it imported 80 per cent of wheat from other countries, thus was not dependent on India alone.
Source: BERNAMA News Agency