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Malaysia now has an oversupply of chicken and can resume exports to other countries.

This latest change in direction was announced by Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries Ronald Kiandee, exactly two months after an export ban was imposed by Malaysia, The Edge and Malay Mail reported.

“At this point of time, we are able to produce 106 per cent of our needs for chicken,” the minister said in parliament on Aug. 1.

His comments have been widely quoted and reported.

“We now have the capacity to export from our chicken supply,” he also said, according to The Straits Times.

He added, saying that inflation has been tamed, according to The Edge: “At this point, we are dealing with a little oversupply of chicken, which has caused the prices of chicken in the market to be lower than the maximum price set by the government.”

The price ceiling for standard chicken in Malaysia is RM9.40 (S$2.91) per kg, which will remain in place until Aug. 31.

"Temporary intervention"

This excess in supply stemmed from Malaysia's ban on chicken exports in June 2022 to stabilise prices and meet a surge in demand.

The ruling cut off Singapore's supply from up north.

Singapore imports about one-third of its chicken from Malaysia.

Until now, the commercial broiler birds that comprise the bulk of sales to Singapore remain blocked, even though Malaysia has since allowed some types of chicken to be sold, such as live kampung and black chickens.

Kiandee said the halt has succeeded in stabilising domestic supplies, and called cutting off of supply to another country a “temporary intervention measure” that mirrored the steps taken by other countries to secure supplies amid disruptions and will be reviewed by the government.

He had previously said the decision on export will be reviewed after the stabilising measures end on Aug. 31.

In the meantime, the Malaysia government has already enabled more in the industry to import frozen chicken into the country.

Background

Singapore imported 214,400 tonnes of chicken meat in 2021.

About one-third of it were from Malaysia.

Malaysia has put in place an export ban of up to 3.6 million chickens a month since June 1, following supply and pricing issues domestically.

In response to the ban, Singapore announced it will source chickens from other places, including Indonesia and Thailand.

Within a month, on June 30, Singapore confirmed that Indonesia has become a new source for the import of chilled, frozen and processed chicken.

The next phase would be to export live chickens from Indonesia to Singapore.

In Malaysia, local poultry industry players are lamenting that they might lose the Singapore market for good.

Indonesia is contemplating building a farm on Batam to possibly supply fresh chicken to Singapore.

Top photo via Unsplash