KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 19 — Malaysia cannot make healthy meals affordable without structural reforms in farmland access, subsidies, and farmer support, said Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin.
The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) member and former deputy agriculture minister told CodeBlue that while the government promotes the “Suku-Suku Separuh” healthy plate model, limited production of fruits and vegetables remains a key barrier.
A recent poll by the Galen Centre for Health and Social Policy and Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) found that “Suku-Suku Separuh” meals are unaffordable for most families, as eating two such healthy meals daily costs a whopping 46 per cent of household income in Malaysia.
In Sarawak, the figure rises to 66 per cent. The national average price of a “Suku-Suku Separuh” plate is RM12.60.
“For Suku-Suku Separuh to work, there must be more food production in Malaysia. I think we have to focus on vegetables and fruits, because that is a big part of it. The problem with vegetables and fruits is there’s not enough farmland,” Sim told CodeBlue when contacted recently.
“A lot of people want to become farmers, but there’s not enough farmland and that is under the state government. State governments are not agricultural-focused. They only talk about housing development and industry taxes, but they never really focus on agriculture.”
Sim said many parcels of land remain vacant but are not made available to farmers. When land is leased, short-term tenures discourage investment in modern farming methods like hydroponics and greenhouses.
“They must let more farmers access farmland. A lot of land is not being cultivated – they call it tanah terbiar (idle land) – but why not give it out to farmers? And then they must give a long-term lease. They cannot be short term, because short term, people don’t want to invest in farmland,” Sim said. “You need to invest in the land – level the land, clear the land, invest in technology. All of that needs money.”
He described the land issue as a “big problem”, pointing out that leases as short as two years, or two plus one plus one, make serious investment impossible. “Agriculture doesn’t give enough money, so it gets the anak tiri [stepchild] treatment,” he said.
Malaysia’s self-sufficiency ratio (SSR) for vegetables was only 45.4 per cent in 2023, while tropical vegetables reached 83.1 per cent. This means Malaysia continues to rely heavily on imports to meet domestic demand for many types of vegetables.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu told Parliament last month that some vegetables achieved SSRs above 100 per cent, such as tomatoes (123.7 per cent), cucumbers (112.1 per cent), spinach (112 per cent), salad (114 per cent), long beans (107.2 per cent), brinjal (112.3 per cent), and lady’s finger (102.2 per cent).
Despite these successes, overall production has not kept pace with demand, leaving Malaysia’s vegetable SSR below 50 per cent.
For fruits, Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) data shows that 10 selected fruits in 2023 recorded SSRs exceeding 100 per cent, including langsat (135.3 per cent), papaya (131.8 per cent), and watermelon (131.4 per cent).
However, Malaysia still imports large volumes of fresh fruit, particularly temperate varieties not widely cultivated locally.
Imported fruits were initially subject to a five per cent sales and service tax (SST) from July 1, but the government later exempted several items, such as apples, oranges, mandarins, and dates, following industry pushback.
Beef Imports Costly, Pork Industry Under Threat
While Malaysia is largely self-sufficient in poultry, beef and pork face far greater challenges. Pork production has declined recently due to African swine fever (ASF) and insufficient government support, forcing many farmers out of the sector.
Beef production, meanwhile, is limited by scarce grazing land. “We import a lot of meat from overseas, including daging kerbau (buffalo meat) from India and beef from Australia. These are very expensive,” Sim said.
“However, in Malaysia’s context, because we don’t have enough land for grassland, it’s not so feasible to invest in large-scale meat production. A lot of people may say I’m wrong, but sometimes it is better to import because of comparative advantage,” he added.
“In Australia, they can do large-scale farming because their grassland is huge, and the grass is free. The Napier grass is there. We have to plant our own Napier, so there are additional costs. The cost of production in Malaysia will be higher.”
Sim said that while large-scale beef production is difficult, small-scale farming is still possible. Beyond beef, he said the government is right to focus on dairy production to reduce reliance on imports.
“That is why the government is focusing on dairy production, which I think is good because we don’t want to import so much milk from overseas. On this, I think KPPM (Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security) is focusing on the right thing, and this is also part of protein.”
He cautioned, however, that farmers need more support and warned that the pork industry risks “collapse” if ASF is not addressed.
“There’s no focus on helping the farmers. So they are struggling, and then they give up and exit the industry altogether. We will have a collapse of the pork industry because of lack of support from the government,” Sim said.
Malaysia brought in RM7.06 billion worth of meat in 2023, while exporting only RM1.07 billion, according to DOSM’s interim livestock report for the 2023 Agricultural Census.
When including dairy products, eggs, hides, and animal feed, the value of livestock and related imports reached RM12.37 billion in 2022, compared to RM3.48 billion in exports, based on Department of Veterinary Services (DVS) figures.
In 2022, Malaysia’s SSR stood at 109 per cent for poultry and duck eggs, 94.4 per cent for chicken and duck meat, 57.3 per cent for fresh milk, and only 14.7 per cent for beef and water buffalo meat – reflecting strong domestic production in poultry but persistent reliance on imported beef.
Australia, New Zealand, and Thailand supplied the majority of Malaysia’s livestock imports in 2023, contributing 84.8 per cent. India remained the largest source of beef, making up roughly 76 per cent of total beef imports.
According to Bernama, live cattle imports increased to RM108.7 million in 2023 from RM82.8 million the previous year, while sheep and goat imports were valued at RM27.2 million.
Sim’s warning on the pork sector comes as Malaysia continues to struggle with outbreaks of ASF, which have slashed self-sufficiency in pork from 84.6 per cent in 2022 to under 70 per cent in 2023.
Farmers, particularly in Penang and Selangor, have suffered large losses from culling due to ASF, while stakeholders have raised concerns that existing support may not be sufficiently targeted to prevent long-term erosion of the pork industry’s resilience.
‘Total Revamp’ Needed In Rice Subsidies And Price Controls
On paddy, Sim said subsidies are plentiful but poorly targeted and not outcome-based. “We are always giving input subsidies, but it is not based on outcome. You give a lot of money, but you don’t see the outcome,” he said.
“There has to be a total revamp of our subsidies to outcome-based. You plant, and then it has to be direct subsidies to the farmers, not through middlemen,” he added.
Sim also called for restructuring paddy prices, arguing that current price controls disadvantage farmers. “The farmers are not getting money because of price control. Once you have price control, the industry is skewed. There’s too much intervention. We need to liberalise it.”
Malaysia’s self-sufficiency level for rice has been between 67 and 70 per cent in recent years, meaning the country produces about two-thirds of its domestic rice demand.
Kedah is Malaysia’s top paddy producer, accounting for more than a third of the country’s total output in 2022. The state also has the largest planted area for paddy in the country at 213,700 hectares, ahead of Sarawak (77,700 hectares), Perak (74,600 hectares), and Kelantan (74,000 hectares).
Food Affordability About Incomes, Not Just Supply
Beyond supply-side issues, Sim stressed that food affordability ultimately depends on household income. He pointed to Singapore as an example of a country with no farmland but high food security because of strong purchasing power.
“Fundamentally, we need to raise the floor of the people. This is what the government is trying to do: raise the ceiling and raise the floor. They must be able to afford food,” he said.
“Singapore has no farmland, but all their people can afford Suku-Suku Separuh. They are very high on the Food Security Index. Why is Indonesia or Thailand lower than Malaysia in terms of food security even though they have so much farmland? Fundamentally, it’s about whether people can afford food or not,” Sim added.
According to the Global Food Security Index 2022, Singapore ranked highest in Southeast Asia at 28th out of 113 countries, followed by Malaysia (41st), Vietnam (46th), Indonesia (63rd), Thailand (64th), the Philippines (67th), Myanmar (72nd), Cambodia (78th), and Laos (81st). Brunei was not included.
“It’s economics. The government must work on how to make people afford food, meaning raising their salary, increasing the minimum wage, and creating more jobs, and at the same time, control food prices. This is what the government is doing,” Sim said.
“I think Malaysia has enough food. Everyone can afford food. It’s just healthy food. So now we need to focus on how to have more healthy food for people,” he said.
Sim said that ensuring Malaysians can afford balanced meals requires both supply reforms – such as land access and better farmer support – and demand reforms that raise incomes.
“Food is very important. Everyone needs food. We need reforms to make healthy food affordable.”
The Draft National Food Security Blueprint (NFSB) 2030 by the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (KPKM) claimed that only 1.8 per cent of Malaysians can’t afford a healthy diet.
