Four unions and NGOs have urged consumers to boycott chicken, which has seen an unreasonable price hike in the wake of the coming festivities.

The Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC), civil service union Cuepacs, Federation of Malaysian Consumer Associations (Fomca) and the Malaysian Youth Council (MYC) have jointly launched a boycott of overpriced essential items, with chicken topping the list, from tomorrow.

"We urge consumers to boycott chicken which has been priced at RM6 per kilogramme,"said a statement signed by MTUC president Zainal Rampak, Cuepacs president Siva Subramaniam, Fomca president Mohd Hamdan Adnan and MYC president Saifuddin Abdullah.

"The boycott will continue until the price of chicken decreases to its previous price RM5.40 per kilogramme," Zainal said, adding that the four organisations would also identify and boycott other overly-priced products.

"While most other consumer products have incurred a price hike of between 30 to 50 per cent, chicken had been identified as the main focus as we don't see any reason for its unreasonable price hike," he said.

The four organisations have also urged the public to purchase alternative meat as a show of support to the boycott.

"The public should look into cheaper alternatives such as beef or fish," Hamdan told malaysiakini . "They should also buy local and seasonal products."

Adding that the four bodies had the support of an estimated two million members, Hamdan urged consumers to support the boycott for their own benefit.

"They power to stop the price hike is in the hands of the consumers. The retailers and middlemen will feel the pinch when consumers stop buying chicken,' he said.

Members of the four organisations will be carrying out spot checks on wet markets nationwide to inspect prices and get feedback from retailers and consumers.

"We will begin our exercise by visiting two wet markets in the Klang Valley tomorrow, including the Jalan Othman wet market in Petaling Jaya," said Saifuddin, adding that the organisations' affiliates throughout the country would do the same in other wet markets on Dec 24 onwards.

Commenting on other actions that the organisations' may undertake during its boycott, Saifuddin said that "we may also go to the streets, probably after Christmas, and distribute pamphlets to educate the public."

The four organisations have also called for the support of local authorities and municipal councils to play a more aggressive role by revoking the licences of traders who increase the prices of controlled items as well as of those who do not display price tags.

At the same time, they also urged the local authorities to issue more temporary hawker licences and provide business outlets in its bid to combat profiteers.

"This would help cut out the middlemen," said Saifuddin.

Hamdan added that a more open market system would encourage healthy competition and a decrease in the price of chicken.

The organisations have also called for members of Parliament and local assemblymen to help combat retailers who exploit consumers. It also urged other NGOs to campaign for more direct selling of consumer products to customers.

Consumers, they advised, should also spend wisely and to lodge reports to them regarding places that over-priced products.