KUALA LUMPUR – The Malaysian Livestock Farmers’ Association Federation (FLFAM) are awaiting a cabinet decision regarding the worsening shortage of chicken supply in the country.
Its president Datuk Jeffrey Ng said that the group will respect whatever call the government makes to address the crisis.
“I won’t comment now. We’ll wait for the government to make a decision (tomorrow).
“I know talks are ongoing. We must respect the government’s decision,” he told Getaran, The Vibes’ Malay-language sister portal, today.
He added that he welcomes Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s call to bring forward the weekly cabinet meeting to tomorrow to discuss increasing living costs and food supply issues.
“It is appropriate for the meeting to be held as soon as possible because the issue of raw food supply including chicken and the cost of living must be addressed immediately.
“However, we will accept whatever the government decides on. What can we do?” he said.
Earlier today, Ismail Sabri said that the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry and Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry would brief the cabinet on such issues, including short and long-term plans to overcome the problems.
“I am bringing forward the cabinet meeting because there are many issues currently, not just involving chickens, but also the cost of living which we expect to go up.
“This is a global problem, a war problem, and so on. During the Covid-19 pandemic, food could not be produced and now that things are better, suddenly there are wars,” he said at a press conference after opening the symposium on the internationalisation of Bahasa Melayu at Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka here.
Meanwhile, a poultry farm in Melaka announced the closure of its premises for two days beginning yesterday, claiming that the chickens living on the farm had a growth delay and did not reach the required weight rate.
Another poultry farm here has also ceased supplying chickens to suppliers from yesterday to tomorrow for the same reasons and will only resume operations on Tuesday.
The closure of the premises is alleged to be a protest against the government, which was said to be slow in paying chicken price subsidies worth 60 cents.
Ng has since refuted rumours of the protest, saying that it is common practice among any company or poultry producer in the country to close operations according to their needs.
He added that the closure does not affect the chain of supply of chicken to customers.
Recently, there have been reports of a lack of fresh chicken supply, forcing chicken traders in several states to close their businesses earlier than expected as they had run out of stock as early as 7am and rationed the number of chickens sold to customers. – The Vibes, May 22, 2022
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