August 1, 2007

 

Malaysia sees rising broiler production as it scales down imports

 

 

Malaysia's broiler production was expected to rise 3.6 percent  in 2006 to a new record as imports continued to decline.

 

 Actual broiler production in 2005 amounted to some 437.05 million, and it looked likely that figures for 2006 would be 452.8 million, according to UKPoultry International, with information from Malaysia's Department of Veterinary Services

 

Malaysia's chick placement  rose 4 percent to 480 million in 2006, a 6 percent increase from 2004.

 

However, the country's parent flock has been declining in the past three years, dropping from 4.60 million in 2003 to 4.36 million in 2005. The country has 29 broiler parent stock companies and 70 farms.

 

Still, placements of day-old female parents in 2005, at 3.63 million were up by more than 9 percent, while the forecast for 2006 shows a further expansion to a new high of 4.29 million.

 

During 2005, the average cost of production per kilogramme was about 3.27 Malaysian Ringgit ( 1MYR = US$0.28), while the average return was MYR3.79/kg.

 

Slightly more than half of the broiler day-old chicks in farms in 2006 comes from integrators and one in five chickens in the country is handled by the 15 Veterinary Health Mark (VHM)-certified slaughter plants in 2005.

 

Both the number of birds and the proportion of the flock passing through these slaughter plants have risen gradually since 2000.

 

Malaysia approved a higher ex-farm ceiling price of MYR 4/kg for broilers in October 2004. This meant that ex-farm price last year must average above MYR3.00/kg in order for production to remain viable.

 

Although the country was declared free of  bird flu in June 2006, an earlier outbreak in February/March had a negative impact on demand, and production might have to be scaled down.

 

Production of coloured broilers, having doubled from around 20 million in 2000 to a peak of almost 43 million in 2003, was still going strong, although it has declined slightly to 39.1 million by 2005.

 

There were 18 breeding companies handling this stock in 2005.

 

The parent flock totalled 324,000, which was almost 14 percent down on the preceding year.

 

Ex-farm prices for these birds ranged from MYR4.00 to MYR6.50/kg, while production costs varied between MYR3.91 and MYR4.61/kg.

 

Domestic demand for these birds is expected to continue and with a slight reduction in supplies while ex-farm prices were expected to hold up for 2006.

 

Malaysia had 10 meat duck breeding companies operating 28 farms in 2005, and there were some 145 commercial meat duck farms.

 

Meat duck production amounted to 31.36 million but the forecast for 2006 was just 22.14 million, reflecting poor sentiments for 2005.

 

Ex-farm prices were around MYR3.40/kg liveweight against production costs ranging from MYR3.18 to MYR3.53.

 

As for hen eggs, an 11 percent cutback in output was expected for 2006.

 

Although costs are expected to have increased a little, the cut in production is likely to lead to higher ex-farm prices.

 

There were eight layer breeding companies and the female layer parent flock in 2005 stood at 397,500, down from 473,000 in 2004 and almost 537,000 in 2003.

 

Although egg output increased by 8 percent from 2004 , the annual average traded ex-farm price was up by almost 3 percent to MYR22.92 cents/egg. The average production cost was about MYR22.16 cents/egg.

 

During the year, egg exports mainly to Singapore rose by 21 percent to 866.4 million eggs.

 

Malaysia exported 37.7 million live broilers in 2005, along with 2590 tonnes of broilermeat.

 

Chicken imports were far less than they used to be. Imports for 2005 was expected at 1,926 tonnes, compared to levels between 18,900 tonnes and 25,700 tonnes from 2001 to 2003.

 

Imports from Denmark make up more than 88 percent of the poultry imported.