KUALA LUMPUR: Food stall traders are resorting to reusing leftover cooking oil as supply of 1kg polybag cooking oil is hard to come by nowadays.

The non-availability of the polybag cooking oil of late has also forced traders to either reduce the quantity or raise the prices of the food items.

A 56-year-old keropok lekor seller at Lorong Tunku Abdul Rahman (TAR), who wished to be known as Ramli, said, he preferred to use the 1kg polybag cooking oil over bottled cooking oil.

"As a small trader, polybag cooking oil is more affordable and cost-efficient."  

"Usually, I would buy five polybags of cooking oil every day, but I couldn't get any today because it had sold out. So, I had to reuse the cooking oil from yesterday which was still good.

"The store where I normally get my daily supply of cooking oil will only allow each customer to buy three packets of the 1kg polybag cooking oil on a first come, first-served basis," he told the New Straits Times.

Ramli also said the price of his keropok lekor and other fried food items would remain the same, but the portion sizes and quantity would be reduced.

"The price of keropok lekor will remain at RM2 for five pieces, but I will have to adjust the length when I cut the long raw keropok lekor into smaller pieces."

"The quantity of other fried food items such as the skewered nuggets, skewered fish balls, and skewered sausages will also be reduced from RM2 for four pieces per stick to three pieces per stick," he said.

A 55-year-old goreng pisang seller, who wanted to be called Ani, said she intended to raise the banana fritter prices between 10 sen to 20 sen.

"Currently, I sell three pieces of the banana fritters for RM1. Since the price of bottled cooking oil will increase, I have to raise the `pisang goreng' prices as well," she said, adding that the price would increase between RM 1.10 and RM 1.20 for three pieces, depending on the availability of cooking oil and other ingredients."

"The polybag cooking oil is hard to find and always out of stock lately. So, I have to buy the bottled cooking oil," she said.