February 25, 2025
GEORGE TOWN – The price of coconut milk has surged drastically in just four months, rising from RM11 to RM18 per kg, with some locations seeing prices as high as RM20 per kg.
The sharp increase is attributed to a nationwide shortage of coconuts, affecting both consumers and businesses ahead of Ramadan and Hari Raya.
At Chowrasta Market here, coconut milk vendor Kuthubuddeen Sultan, 69, who has been selling for over four decades, described the current price hike as unprecedented.
“Before Deepavali on Oct 30 last year, the price of coconut milk was between RM9 and RM11 per kg.
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“After the festival, it started increasing gradually and now, I am selling it at RM16 per kg because I don’t have the heart to charge my customers too much,” he said.
The price of coconuts, meanwhile, has doubled from RM5 per kg before Deepavali to between RM9 and RM10 per kg now.
He said if this trend continued, the price of coconut milk would be even higher during Ramadan and Hari Raya.
Another coconut milk seller, Mohd Munir Mohd Rashidi, 38, said coconut milk is a crucial ingredient in many traditional Malay dishes such as lemang, curries and rendang.
“Last year, a tonne of coconuts cost RM1,800, but now the price has doubled to RM3,900,” he said.
Consumers and food vendors are bracing for further price hikes, raising concerns about affordability during the coming festive period.
A coconut supplier based in Perak, who wished to be identified only as Andrew, said the coconut shortage is unavoidable and a natural phenomenon.
“This happened before in the 1990s, and it’s happening again now, leading to a decline in coconut production,” he explained.
Another major coconut supplier in Penang, M. Joel Jeyachandaran, attributed the surge in coconut milk prices to the age of the coconuts.
Jeyachandaran said it took only four or five mature coconuts to produce a kilo of coconut milk, whereas it would take seven or eight young ones to get the same amount.
He hopes weather conditions would improve soon so the trees would produce more coconuts.
Consumers Association of Penang, in a statement, called on the Federal Agricultural Marketing Authority to take immediate action to resolve the coconut shortage.
To prevent an acute shortage, the government secured 164,000 coconuts from Sabah and the islands off Palembang in Indonesia.
Agriculture and Food Security Ministry Secretary-General Datuk Seri Isham Ishak said the supply from Palembang is scheduled to arrive in March.