KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 1): Malaysia is currently facing a slight oversupply of chicken in the market, following several "effective" measures and actions taken by the government for stabilising the country's chicken supply situation, said Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ronald Kiandee.

The Beluran Member of Parliament (MP) said among the measures that the government has taken are eliminating approved permits (APs) as well as opening up the delivery of chicken imports from outside the country besides calling a halt to exports of chicken to foreign countries.

"A little disruption has occurred in the past few months [during which] the country faced a supply disruption. That is why some measures and actions have been taken by the government to stabilise our country's chicken supply situation.

"At this point [in time], we are dealing with a bit of chicken oversupply, which makes the prices of chicken in the local market lower than the ceiling price that has been determined by the government.

"The actions taken by the government have been seen to be effective and have succeeded in re-stabilising our country's chicken supply," he said in Parliament on Monday (Aug 1).

Ronald was responding to a supplementary question by Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar, who wanted to know how the government would be involved in the chicken industry, having already achieved a self-sufficiency rate of over 100%.

"[In fact,] at this point, we are able to produce 106% of our self-sufficiency level requirements. It means that we have the capacity to export chicken supplies from our country," added Ronald.

On Friday (July 29), Ronald was reported as saying that the government would review the chicken ceiling price and approval to export chicken after the implementation of the RM9.40 per kg ceiling price in Peninsular Malaysia ends on Aug 31.

The government had earlier capped the retail price of chicken at RM9.40 per kg in Peninsular Malaysia from July 1 to Aug 31.

Meanwhile, Ronald noted the government is observing the stability of the country's chicken supply before deciding further action towards reopening its exports abroad.

This came after he concurred with Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, saying that the country will reopen its exports of chicken abroad if there is an excess capacity for the item.

He said the move is not an unusual one, having cited the example of India when the country faced the problem of grain shortage and subsequently took steps to stop exporting abroad. 

"[Similarly,] Indonesia took the same step over palm oil. So, Malaysia took a temporary intervention measure in the same context to ensure that the country's chicken supply is stable and also able to [meet] our country's needs.

"It is a temporary intervention measure that will of course be reviewed by the government when it sees the situation [returning] to stability as before," he said.

Sim had earlier asked the ministry to disclose the government's steps towards convincing overseas markets such as Singapore, Brunei, and so on that Malaysia remains committed to them as well as helping the poultry sector within Malaysia to expand in the future.

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