Rozita running her stall selling Malay-style mixed rice at Jalan Cermat Hawker Centre.
EATERIES in Johor Baru are adopting a wait-and-see approach until the end of the year to gauge the impact of the lifting of price controls on chicken and eggs.
Johor Indian Muslim Entrepreneurs Association (Perusim) secretary Hussein Ibrahim said the association would closely watch the development of the move by the government.
“It is still too early after the tabling of Budget 2024 to make any decisions,” he said when contacted.
The association has several options to address the impact of the move.
Hussein said chicken and eggs are the main ingredients in almost every dish served by mamak restaurants in the country.
They serve between eight to 12 chicken dishes such as ayam masak merah, ayam briyani, ayam kurma, ayam rendang, ayam masak bawang and ayam masak rose.
Chicken and eggs are also used in mamak mee goreng, fried rice, briyani and roti canai telur.
“If we decide to maintain our prices, we will have to reduce the size of the chicken pieces and the portion of rice served,’’ said Hussein.
Hussein: The association has two options – either to increase the prices of dishes or maintain them but reduce the servings.
Currently, the price for a plate of white rice with a piece of chicken and one type of vegetable is RM6.50 and a serving of chicken briyani is from RM12 to RM13 at mamak restaurants in Johor Baru.
A plate of fried noodles with chicken and egg costs between RM6.50 and RM7, roti canai telur about RM2.50 and roti canai telur bawang at RM2.70.
“If we are to increase our prices, we will probably start in January (next year) and the price hike will be by about 15%,” said Hussein.
He urged the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry to continue monitoring the prices of chicken and eggs to ensure suppliers and distributors do not take advantage of the removal of the ceiling price for the items.
Dapur Bonda Rozita owner Rozita Ramli, who runs a stall selling Malay-style mixed rice at Jalan Cermat Hawker Centre in Taman Maju Jaya, lamented that the prices of raw ingredients increased early this year.
“The majority of food operators in Johor Baru face difficulties maintaining their prices.
“A price hike is inevitable as we are already operating with high overheads and a thin profit margin,” said Rozita.
She added that poultry sellers and egg traders at the Johor Baru wholesale market were giving hints to buyers that they would increase the prices of chicken and eggs soon.
Rozita said a tray of 30 regular Grade A eggs were sold at RM13.50, Grade B at RM12.90 and Grade C at RM12.
“My regular egg sellers said the price of a tray of regular Grade A eggs would got up to RM22, Grade B to RM21 and Grade C to RM20.
“When the prices of eggs go up, I will have no choice but to pass the cost to my customers,’’ said Rozita, adding that she would have to sell a fried egg for RM2, instead of the current RM1.50.
She said the difficulty in getting local rice recently forced her to use imported rice, which costs RM42 for a 10kg pack, and increase the price of plain rice from RM2 to RM2.50 per plate.
