Singapore poultry importers see reprieve as Malaysia’s chicken export ban partially lifted

A FORTNIGHT after implementing a blanket suspension on all chicken exports, the Malaysian government on Tuesday (Jun 14) announced a partial lifting of the ban with some poultry players in Singapore already able to bring in live kampung and black chickens.

This was revealed in a letter dated Jun 9 by Malaysia’s Department of Veterinary Services and seen by The Business Times (BT), which also stated that exports of poultry products such as nuggets or sausages can also resume. However, commercial broiler chickens, which make up the bulk of the chickens that Singapore used to import from Malaysia on a daily basis, are still on the ban list.

On Jun 1, Malaysia halted the export of up to 3.6 million chickens per month, as well as processed chicken products, in an effort to stabilise domestic supply and prices.

Singapore brings in around a third of its total chicken supply from Malaysia, almost all of which are live chickens that are later slaughtered and chilled here. The Republic also imports chicken from other countries such as the United States and Brazil, but these are mostly of the frozen kind.

According to various reports, at least 2 Singapore companies - Kee Song Food and Hup Heng Poultry Industries - have obtained the necessary permits and will start to bring in live kampung and black chickens again.

Ma Chin Chew, the secretary of Singapore’s Poultry Merchants’ Association and chief executive officer of Hup Heng Poultry Industries, was quoted in a report on Channel NewsAsia that the poultry will be sold to wet markets, hawkers and restaurants from Wednesday.

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An employee of a poultry farm operator in Johor told BT that many exporters in Malaysia are busy negotiating with the authorities to ease or lift the export ban, given that domestic supplies have started to stabilise.

“It’s been 2 weeks, and local markets have sufficient supplies. It might be more expensive (than before) but I haven’t heard of anyone who is unable to get chickens from the wet markets,” he said.

He noted that the lifting of the export ban on the premium chickens such as kampung and black chickens will not affect Malaysia’s overall supply much as the vast majority of the country’s poultry farms are breeding broiler chickens.