Sabah has the largest oil palm plantations in Malaysia covering over one million hectares. It was reported that the country earned a total of RM13.56 billion from oil palm from 5.136 million tonnes of crude palm oil in 2010.

Thus, the country is also the largest producer of cooking oil.

Yet, lately, there is shortage of cooking oil in the market. When asked, Deputy Minister of Domestic Trade, Cooperative and Consumerism Tan Lian Hoe said confidently that there was no shortage. He went to the extent of saying that the people could bathe with it and there would be more to spare.

His statement which was published in the Chinese press, was not well received by the business community in Tawau.

DAP Sabah Chairman YB Jimmy Wong and I took time to check the outlets in Tawau on last Tuesday.

We checked out a wholesale market and two supermarkets. It is confirmed that the oil palm-based cooking oils were not found on the shelves of supermarkets. What we saw were expensive cooking oils from soya bean and corn.

The owner of a wholesale market informed us that the supplies of cooking oil were inadequate.

The wholesaler said it now received about 296 cartons of 17kg/carton cooking oil (5,032 kg) as opposed to the usual 34,000 kg (2,000 cartons) before the crisis. This has made the retailers and wholesalers unhappy.

We were informed that the official subsidised price of cooking oil is RM2.75/kg. The wholesaler to retailers' price is RM2.73, a tiny two cents profit margin.

Like many of the subsidies, the main beneficiaries are the foreigners who buy the subsidised goods and smuggle them over to a neighbouring country. The subsidised cooking oil is sold at RM5 per kg in the neighbouring country, a lucrative profit margin.

A mini-market owner wants the government to find a solution on how to sell these subsidised goods that will benefit the targeted group of Sabahans and also investigate and control the smuggling of subsidised commodities as they are rampant.

Jimmy Wong, who is Sri Tanjung assemblyperson, has been asked by supermarket owners to bring several matters affecting the business community in the next sitting of the assembly which starts tomorrow to Wednesday.

They informed the DAP leaders that supermarkets are now only supplied with 10 cartons of cooking oil versus five cartons for the small outlets on a weekly basis.

This is just not enough and has burdened many people especially our Muslim friends who will be celebrating the Hari Raya at the end of this month.

They want to know the reason why we are facing a shortage of cooking oil when our land is basically covered with oil palm. There is speculation that the subsidy has not been paid to the refineries.

The supermarket owners are obviously unhappy with the government's plan to establish the 1Malaysia Kedai Runcit ( grocery stores) across the country.

They said that if the 1Malaysia groceries are selling at the same prices as the supermarket then they have no problem with that.

They feel that if they (1Malaysia groceries) start to sell much cheaper than the supermarkets then they might as well close shop and move on to other business.

The government is very unfair because we have been asked to renovate and beautify our supermarkets and now they want to create the 1Malaysia groceries.

This is telling to just close shop but without saying so.

EDWIN BOSI is Sabah DAP secretary.