04/01/2008 (Xinhua), Kuala Lumpur - Malaysia will begin to implement a rationing supply of cooking oil as the country is facing a cooking oil shortage crisis, a local official announced on Friday.

Beginning from next week, a customer can merely buy a maximum of five kilograms of cooking oil one time, Malaysian Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Shafie Apdal said.

This is not the first time that Malaysia is imposing a rationing practice for controlled items, he said.

Some one or two years ago, Malaysia adopted a similar policy as the country faced the supply shortage of sugar.

Shafie said that the government is taking measures to address the cooking oil crisis, including raising cooking oil production capacity by 10 percent from the current 48,988 tons each month to 53,886 tons.

Local newspapers reported recently that the states of Kelantan, Pahang, Melaka and Kedah were worst hit by the crisis and that major supermarkets there were facing difficulty in replenishing stocks.