GEORGE TOWN: One man’s meat is another’s financial poison – even as consumers rejoice that chicken prices have dropped because of excess in supply, poultry farmers are struggling to cope with high production costs.
They have to spend about RM7 for every kilogramme of chicken and the retail price of chicken has dropped to RM3.50 per kg.
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Bismi Empire Sdn Bhd managing director Mazlina Kamarudin said the industry experienced a chicken surplus following the ban on its export.
She called on the Federal Government to stop chicken imports and reopen exports to stabilise the market supply.
“When exporters in Johor are unable to export the birds to Singapore, the surplus will be sent to Selangor, and this will affect suppliers from the northern region.
“The high price of chicken feed like soy and corn as well as other raw materials is among factors leading to the high cost of rearing chickens.
“The price of chicken feed has increased from RM80 to RM135 since October last year.
“It was only this month that the price was reduced by RM1,” she added.
Mazlina said the welfare of chicken farmers should also be safeguarded, adding that the government should set a floor price to ensure farmers do not lose too much when market prices go down.
“The welfare of farmers needs to be taken into consideration as chickens are perishable items.
“It is a risky business as an outbreak can easily wipe out a chicken farm.
“What’s important is to ensure that supply is not disrupted – the government should provide a supply buffer.
“I’m worried that if the price continues to drop and farmers continue to suffer losses, they may stop rearing again.
“It may eventually cause another shortage later.
“As farmers, we always want sufficient supply of chicken in the market sold at an affordable price,” she added.
Mydin Malaysia executive director (northern) Azmin Saduruddin said the chicken supply was now back to normal, but demand for eggs in hypermarkets was still high.
“We are now selling about one tonne of chicken in each of the five hypermarkets in the northern region daily.
“But for eggs, if we order about 300 trays of them, the supplier can only deliver about 100. There is a shortage of Grade C eggs especially.
“Suppliers said the shortage was due to new batches of chicken being reared, which are not able to produce larger eggs.
“Hopefully, within the next three months, the birds would have grown and produced large enough eggs to meet market demand,” he said.
As for cooking oil, Azmin agreed with the government fixing a ceiling price.
“If the stipulated price of cooking oil keeps fluctuating, it is hard for us to keep stock coming in.
“We might have to hold back on orders to remain competitive in the market,” he added.
Mydin opened its 67th hypermarket in the country, in Tunjong, Kelantan, in March.