Price of Sabah cooking oil unchanged despite soaring CPO prices – Junz

KOTA KINABALU: The positive impact of Warisan's past policies are being felt today, amidst soaring cooking oil prices.

According to Tanjung Aru assemblyman Datuk Junz Wong, it is no secret that Crude Palm Oil (CPO) prices have skyrocketed, resulting in cooking oil prices going up drastically.

He said CPO prices have soared. While this may be good for state revenue and oil palm plantations, the normal everyday rakyat is feeling the pinch.

"The MCO and Emergency Declaration is already hurting Sabahans' pockets. Now even price of cooking oil from KL have risen from RM20+ to RM30+, making cost of living rise.

"If you look at the supermarket shelves, household brands like Red Eagle, Vesawit, Neptune, Buruh and so forth are roughly RM30 for a 5kg bottle.

"It used to be RM20+, but they are now RM30+."

He added the lackadaisical attitude of the government is to be blamed.

Junz said the Federal Government announced a stimulus package recently, but prices of essential things like cooking oil is going up.

"Is this a case of assistance crossing from the right hand to the left hand? On one hand assistance is given to lessen burden during MCO, but on the other hand, prices of essentials are increased, forcing the rakyat to pay more to survive.

"The Federal Government should be taking initiatives to suppress the increase of prices of essential items especially during the MCO. But the lackadaisical attitude is resulting in the reverse.

"You cant blame retailers or factories because these factors are market driven. Instead, it is GRS and PN who should be taking initiatives to resolved these issues since they are in power," he said.

He said we can blame and question the current government for the absence of proactive measures to help the rakyat.

GRS and PN, he said, have no incentive and drive to help the people.

"This is very different from us Warisan when we were in power. Warisan executed many ideas and policies to help industrialise Sabah and help Sabahans.

"For example in February 2020, Warisan launched BESS in Tawau. BESS is Sabah's first ever cooking oil. Then in July 2020, Gold was launched in Sandakan. And in September 2020, Onsoi was launched in Keningau."

The former Sabah Agriculture and Food Industry Minister also said it is unfortunate that raw materials from Sabah rarely benefit Sabahans.

"Sabah is very rich with raw materials like palm oil. But isn't it perplexing that for many decades, we export our raw materials to KL, process it in KL and then send it back to Sabah?

"In the end Sabahans have to spend more to purchase cooking oil, despite planting oil palm in our backyard!

"The downstream producers in KL are reaping all the profits from Sabahans, despite us Sabahans producing the raw materials of cooking oil," he said.

Junz said that was why Warisan president Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal who was farsighted and had a long term sustainable vision for Sabah, launched and executed BESS, Gold and Onsoi.

"We have created downstream industries for Sabahans, created more jobs for Sabahans and now Sabahans have a few Sabahbrand cooking oils to choose as alternatives.

"Visit any supermarket near your area. You will find that BESS is still around which is priced at RM20+ per 5kg bottle despite KL-imported cooking oil breaching RM30.

"We Sabahans still have BESS that is less affected by fluctuating prices. The impact is lesser on locally produced cooking oil, and thus Sabahans are able to enjoy positive impacts of Warisan's 26month administration," he said.