A total of 166,769 permission letters for inter-district and inter-state travels were issued to agricultural operators during the Movement Control Order (MCO) to avoid wastage of agricultural produce, the Dewan Rakyat was told on December 15. Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Food Industry (MAFI) of malyasia Datuk Seri Ahmad Hamzah said the letters were issued to facilitate marketing and distribution of agricultural-based products. "When MCO was implemented, agricultural activities were categorised as essential services and allowed to operate to ensure the food supply chain was not interrupted," he said during the question and answer session in response to a question from Nurul Izzah Anwar (PHPermatang Pauh). Nurul Izzah wanted to know measures taken by the ministry to resolve the disruption of the  supply chain during the MCO which resulted in wastage of agricultural produce. According to Ahmad said, several strategies were implemented and they included holding  “Pasar Segar Terkawal” during the MCO 1.0 (March 30 to May 1, 2020) and MCO 3.0 (June 1 to Sept 11, 2021). He said another strategy was improving distribution efficiency through strategic partnerships  with first-mile (farm to distribution hubs or customers) and last mile (distribution hubs  directly to customers) service providers, such as Pos Laju, Citylink, Line Clear, Lalamove and  Gdex. The collaboration, he said, gave manufacturers the option to obtain delivery services at a lower cost. "MAFI also opens up online market alternatives through e-commerce portals such as  Agrobazaar Online, Agrobazaar Malaysia's 'market place' at Shopee, Shop Malaysia Online at  LAZADA and Air Asia farm. “This strategy cab reduce dependence by producers on physical marketing methods,” he added. Apart from that, he said, MAFI also encouraged the processing of agricultural products.