Cameron Highlands Farmer Protest

Farmers dump cabbages to protest low price of vegetable
Thursday October 22, 2009

Malaysia Nanban reported that vegetable farmers in Cameron Highlands will continue to dump cabbages in front of the Cameron Highlands Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama) to protest the low price of the vegetable.

Cameron Highlands Vegetable Growers Association secretary Chay Ee Mong said the farmers were incurring losses since August due to the slump in the price of round cabbages.

He said they had asked Fama and the Malaysian Farmer’s Association (LLP) to reduce imports of the vegetable to help farmers, but had yet to receive any reply.

He added the association was unhappy that Fama had failed to the monitor monthly import of over 4,000 metric tonnes of round cabbage from China and Indo-nesia.

He said that the the excessive import of the vegetable had affected prices and caused losses to the farmers. -- The Star

Protesting vegetable farmers chuck cabbage
Tuesday October 20, 2009

IPOH: More than 300 vegetable farmers in Cameron Highlands will continue to dump round cabbages in front of the Cameron Highlands Federal Agriculture Marketing Authority (Fama) to protest the vegetable’s low price.

They say that FAMA had failed to monitor and cut imports of cabbage from China and Indonesia, causing the prices to slump and the farmers to incur losses.

Cameron Highlands Vegetable Growers Association secretary Chay Ee Mong said the price of round cabbages had fallen since August.

He said they had asked Fama and the Malaysian Farmer's Association (LLP) to cut cabbage imports but had received no response.

"The wholesale price of cabbage is between 30 sen and 40 sen per kilogramme, as compared to between 60 and 80, previously," he told Bernama here Tuesday, adding the farmers’ production cost was 80 sen per kilogramme.

Chay said the association was unhappy that Fama had failed to monitor monthly imports of over 4,000 metric tonnes of round cabbage from China and Indonesia, causing the price of local products to fall.

Although the local production of 3,500 metric tonnes was insufficient for the market, he said excessive imports had affected commodity prices and caused losses to the farmers.

"If the situation does not change, the farmers have no choice but to throw away the cabbage," he added.

Vegetable farmers in Cameron Highlands had taken similar action previously when faced with falling prices of local products. - Bernama