KUCHING (July 11): Four more food and beverage (F&B) manufacturers in Sarawak have applied for sugar import permits for the consumption of their respective factories, said Deputy Minister for Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Chong Chieng Jen.

He said these four F&B manufacturers had written in to his ministry, which welcomes more F&B manufacturers to write in to apply.

“For the application of the sugar import permits, any F&B manufacturer simply needs to write to the ministry and support with information on the amount of sugar required annually for its production.

“This is the ministry’s new policy to liberalise sugar supply in Sarawak, with a view to helping reduce the costs of production of food and beverages in Sarawak,” he said in a statement here today.

He said this was in sharp contrast to the previous monopoly policy whereby all local F&B manufacturers were compelled to buy sugar from only two sugar refineries in Malaysia, namely MSM Malaysia Holdings Bhd (MSM) and Central Sugar Refinery Sdn Bhd (CSR).

At the moment, he said, the price of sugar supplied by sugar refineries in Thailand is less than RM2.00 per kg (inclusive of transport) while the price of sugar supplied by the two refiners in Malaysia to Sarawak F&B manufacturers is approximately RM2.70 per kg.

As such, huge savings could be achieved by the Sarawak F&B manufacturers with the grant of the sugar import permits, he said.

As for the Sarawak United People’s Party’s (SUPP) threat to lodge a report with the Malaysia Anti-Corruption Commission on the new liberalisation policy and making an allegation that he received kick-backs, Chong said SUPP is free to do whatever it wishes.

However, Chong said if the SUPP genuinely wanted to know who the recipients were, the proper channel was to get the SUPP Member of Parliament or any of the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) Members of Parliament to submit a question in Parliament.

“It is strange that having been in the government for so many decades, SUPP still does not know the parliamentary process of questioning the ministries,” he added.

One F&B manufacturer in Sarawak applied for an AP last year and received it late last year.

Eight more F&B manufacturers subsequently applied, and received their respective APs last month. — Bernama