KUALA LUMPUR – An opposition lawmaker has warned of the long-term implications of over-reliance on imported poultry to combat domestic supply shortages, after the government yesterday dropped its approved permit (AP) requirement for import purposes.
Bayan Baru MP Sim Tze Tzin, who served as deputy minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry during the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration, said the influx of imports of foreign poultry supplies will be at the expense of local farmers, particularly small-scale players that are already struggling.
While the move could somewhat help ease supply shortages in the short-term, he said it demonstrated the improvident thinking of the government acting under panic without a clear, long-term planning to address the crisis.
“During PH’s time in power, we didn’t allow the import of whole chicken to protect our farmers. Now, it is basically a free for all, anybody can import. This will affect local players tremendously,” he told The Vibes today.
“Our farmers will have problems because they will have to compete with much bigger global chicken suppliers. There is a risk that local farmers will be wiped out if there is an excessive import of chickens.
“In the future, we will face food security problems because of this, as there won’t be enough locally produced goods to cater to our needs should a global chicken supply crisis occur.”
In a statement yesterday, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the cabinet has decided to abolish the AP system for poultry imports, effectively allowing any entity to bring in supplies, to meet the local demand.
He also announced the banning of all poultry exports beginning June 1 until the situation stabilises in the country, amid a shortage of chicken supply in the market and ballooning prices in recent weeks.
The government will also look to create a stock buffer, Ismail Sabri said, as well as facilitate the claiming process for subsidies among farmers, after grouses among certain industry players of the lengthy, tedious process.
Sim questioned the effectiveness of increasing imports of chicken supplies to stabilise the current high price, noting that the cost of bringing in the products from overseas and selling them in the local market would already be very costly.
“Chicken prices overseas are already expensive. Combine that with the logistics and others, I would say importing more supply will not have much effect here; it won’t reduce the price.”
The only upside to removing the APs, Sim said, is it will finally be able to get rid of the rent-seeking practice by government cronies whom he claimed to have benefitted from the policy, subsequently reducing part of the import cost.
According to the PKR lawmaker, while APs were originally created to protect small and medium farmers by stopping global poultry players from flooding the local market, the system has been widely abused by unscrupulous government leaders.
“These APs were given to cronies. I think for the sake of transparency and accountability, the government must announce who are the ones who received the APs previously. Let the public know whether these are genuine players or politically linked rent-seekers.”
He added that his attempt during the March Parliament sitting to get the government to reveal the names of supposedly 35 AP holders allowed to import chickens had been futile, with no update provided by those in authority to date. – The Vibes, May 24, 2022
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