Communications and multimedia minister Annuar Musa, who is the chairman of the task force, said the government could not allow market forces alone to work and would conduct certain interventions.

“We have identified that in the production of chicken, eggs, cooking oil and others, there are tendencies to create cartels to ensure traders have a business model which maximises profits,” he told a media conference here.

He said each process would be studied to see if it breached existing laws, adding that action would be taken to overcome the cartel issue.

“We know the middleman system has existed for a long time in the country, but it is wrong when they start making excessive profits or take the cut-throat approach.

“Studies show that the profit margin for distributors is bigger than that of the retailers or farmers.

“We cannot allow the approach of the ‘survival of the fittest’ or ‘free-for-all’ situation. There should be certain interventions by the government to look after the interest of consumers,” he said.