Open AccessRole of BERNAS as Government Linked Company (GLC) – Supporting and Complementing National (Malaysia) Food Security Food Policies
Author(s) -
Muhammad Salman
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
journal of tropical resources and sustainable science/journal of tropical resources and sustainable science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2462-2389
pISSN - 2289-3946
DOI - 10.47253/jtrss.v1i2.639
Subject(s) - food security , business , government (linguistics) , sustainability , profit (economics) , food safety , agency (philosophy) , balance (ability) , order (exchange) , profit margin , marketing , agriculture , economics , finance , medicine , ecology , philosophy , linguistics , epistemology , pathology , microeconomics , physical medicine and rehabilitation , biology
As the privatized foodgrain management agency, BERNAS plays its roles in supporting and complementing the national food security policy of Malaysia. These include: (1) promoting market stability and thereby stabilizing rice prices, making them affordable to the consumers; (2) ensuring sufficient supply of rice of various grades and qualities anywhere in the country, making rice easily accessible to all; and (3) supporting the sustainability of domestic rice production which is deemed important to the national food security. These roles have established BERNAS as a ?rice institution? rather than a ?rice shop? whereby its main function is not to compete with other players in the market, but to make sure that all players in the industry would have sufficient margin to enable them to continue with their respective businesses. In doing so, BERNAS serves the interests of all stakeholders in the paddy and rice industry, including farmers, industry players, consumers, government and the nation as a whole. Due to these roles, BERNAS always has to balance between its commercial interest, since it must make reasonable profit in order to survive, and the interest of the nation as a whole. It is a delicate task in ensuring the confidence of the public and various stakeholders.