January 17, 2023

Malaysian cooperatives urged to explore chicken farming

Datuk Ewon Benedick, Malaysia's Entrepreneur Development and Cooperative Minister, has urged more local cooperatives to explore the potential of chicken farming to meet domestic demand for the meat, Daily Express reported.

He said 21 cooperatives registered with the Cooperative Commission of Malaysia (SKM) engage in the business of raising chickens, generating a combined yearly income of MYR 57.46 million (~US$13.3 million; MYR 1 = US$0.23).

The minister hopes that the current cooperatives operating in this sector will fully benefit from the help offered by the ministry through SKM to develop their operations.

He said various forms of assistance, including funding up to MYR 3 million (~US$695,000) through the Agrofood Fund and development assistance up to MYR 300,000 (~US$69,500) to strengthen the infrastructure of chicken farming activities, are provided to empower cooperatives in chicken farming activities.

Datuk Umar Sarim Saidin, the new Deputy Executive Chairman of SKM, said the 21 cooperatives are located in Kedah, Penang, Perak, Selangor, Federal Territories, Melaka, Johor, Pahang, Terengganu, and Kelantan.

He said the majority of cooperatives engaged in chicken farming are contract farming with a party integrator, with Ayamas being the majority.

Umar said the cooperatives have the ability to produce 5.2 million chickens annually, as opposed to 2.5 million chickens per day needed for domestic consumption.

The price increase of seeds and inputs, the manipulation of integrators in contracts and transactions, the difficulty in obtaining high-quality seeds (DOC), and the impact of high death and disability rates are among the problems and challenges faced by cooperatives in this sector, he said.

-      Daily Express