style="text-transform: uppercase;">Kota Kinabalu: A logistics delay in the delivery of cooking oil has been behind the occasional shortage of 1kg cooking oil in polybags in the West Coast areas. Domestic Trade, Co-operatives and Consumerism Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said this was due to the delay in the consignment of cooking oil to the West Coast 're-packer' here despite the cooking oil quota for the State being sufficient based on present calculations.

"There is only one re-packer in the West Coast at present. A majority of them are in Sandakan and Tawau as most of the refineries are also there.

"Due the distance the supply is a bit late as it also involves certain processes before it can reach local stores in the West Coast," he said during a walkabout at a major supermarket here, Saturday.

Also present during the walkabout were Community Development and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Jainab Ahmad and Mayor Datuk Yeo Boon Hai.

There are presently 16 re-packers in Sandakan and 7 re-packers in Tawau but only one in KKIP handling the supply for the whole West Coast area.

Approximately, 600 metric tonnes of the 4,484 metric tonne cooking oil quota for Sabah head to the West Coast re-packer in two consignments each month, while the remainder stay in the East Coast.

But since mid-November last year the supply of the 1kg polybag cooking oil was constantly insufficient and this came just days after the Federal Government lifted the subsidy on bottled cooking oil, but kept the subsidy for cooking oil in 1kg polybag packets at RM2.50 per bag.

The move saw bottled cooking oil prices rise significantly and the 1kg polybag cooking oil snapped up instantly.

Hamzah blamed panic buying for this and thus the close to non-existent supply caused consumer complaints to rise over the shortage at the ministry's office here.

Towards this end, he said the ministry is presently in talks with several refineries in the East Coast to get another re-packer to cater to the West Coast area to resolve the problem here.

Hamzah also dismissed the need to set a separate quota for traders and home users to share the cooking oil, adding that the present calculation was sufficient.

"A consumer requires at least one-and-a-half bags of cooking oil each month. If the consumer decides to eat out, he is giving away his entitlement to the traders or restaurant operators as he no longer needs to cook at home.

"Based on this logic, the present quota is sufficient to cater to domestic use," said Hamzah, adding that the ministry, however, will take action on those found hoarding the subsidised cooking oil and smuggling them out of the country.

Meanwhile, he hoped traders will not raise the prices of goods listed in the Chinese New Year Price Control Scheme, adding that officers will constantly monitor the prices throughout the period of enforcement which is from Jan 23 to Feb 3.

The ministry has listed 12 items under the price control scheme for the celebration.