KUALA LUMPUR: The Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry is confident that the chicken supply will be stabilised by February next year, says its minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.
He said his ministry, through the Veterinary Services Department (DVS), had held engagement sessions with poultry industry players who gave their commitment to increase production capacity in line with current demand.
“This problem (chicken supply) is temporary and the import (of frozen whole chicken) by the government is a temporary measure too.
“It will be stopped as soon as local production has stabilised,” he said during the Ministers’ Question Time session in the Dewan Rakyat yesterday.
He was replying to a supplementary question from Datuk Seri Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof (Bersatu-Alor Gajah) on specific programmes implemented by the ministry to ensure enough supply, and thus stabilise chicken prices.
“Due to the movement control order, the industry reduced production and it became critical when the economy reopened and demand for chicken increased,” Bernama quoted him as saying.
He said the production of chickens in October was 52.05 million birds, but it dropped to 51.4 million in November – a shortfall of 17.73%, compared to actual needs.
The projected chicken production this month was 61 million, he said.
The average chicken demand in the country is 3,762 tonnes per day or 113,220 tonnes a month, he said.
He gave his assurance that the frozen chickens imported from nine plants in Thailand and two in China were safe and halal as the matter had been handled by an inspection committee comprising the DVS and Jakim, the Islamic Development Department of Malaysia.