KUALA LUMPUR: Titiwangsa member of parliament Datuk Seri Johari Ghani has proposed for the government to remove the price cap for local rice.

At the moment, the government-controlled local rice price at priced at RM2.60 per kg.

Johari said if the price of local rice is floated according to supply and demand, it would serve as a motivation for local farmers to plant and produce more padi as it would give them huge profit.

He said bigger companies would also be interested in being involved in the business on a large scale due to the profits they could enjoy.

“This is how we can develop the local rice production industry. If not, we will continue to face this (shortage) issue,” he said when debating on the local rice supply disruption in the Dewan Rakyat today.

He said rice is the only commodity, apart from palm oil, that holds the potential to be self-sustaining in Malaysia.

Johari said some companies, for example, are involved in the palm oil industry as it would net them larger profits.

The same, he said, should be done for the local rice industry.

“At the moment, we enable the sale of polybag cooking oil at subsidised prices as the sales (profits) outweigh the cost.

“If we can do it for palm oil, I do not see any reason why we cannot do it for the rice industry,” he said.