Malaysia may buy raw sugar from China in the face of shortages in a number of states which have been blamed on smuggling and hoarding by wholesalers, reports said today.

Malaysian refineries currently import raw sugar from Australia and Brazil but Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal said he would discuss Chinese imports with the trade ministry.

"If the purchase price is lower than the open market price, we will be prepared to consider importing raw sugar from China," Shafie said in Parliament late last night, the state Bernama news agency reported.

Domestic demand for sugar is 925,000 tonnes but Malaysia's four main sugar refineries can produce 1.2 million tonnes, he said.

"We can see here that there is a surplus and there is no reason for a shortage of sugar in the country," he added.

Several Malaysian states, including Selangor and the Federal Territories, where the capital Kuala Lumpur is located, are suffering sugar shortages, and Shafie blamed the situation on hoarding by wholesalers, reports said.

Artificial shortage

In eastern states, "the problem was brought about by an excess number of wholesalers who had mopped up a lot of sugar, creating an artificial shortage," Shafie was quoted as saying in the New Straits Times .

Shafie also noted that raw sugar was sold for processing in Malaysia at a fixed US$215 a tonne, far below prices of US$350 and US$400 on the open market.

"We are not doing enough to curb smuggling. After all, our sugar is the cheapest in the region and this only makes it attractive to smugglers" parliamentarian Mohamad Said Yusof was quoted as saying in the newspaper.

Shafie said the government was introducing a system to monitor sugar supplies and check hoarding, the Star reported today.

"We will strictly monitor this to ensure sugar is being sold to consumers and not bought in bulk by industries and hoarded," he said in the report