May 7, 2004

Malaysia To Review Incentives To Encourage Livestock Industry

The Malaysian government is prepared to review incentives offered to plantation companies, in a bid to encourage them to get involved in animal husbandry.

Plantation companies were invited to recommend incentives needed if they felt that the current incentives were not sufficient. Agriculture and Agro-Based Industry Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said this on Thursday.

"We want more plantation companies to get involved (in livestock breeding) because currently a lot (of plantation companies) are still not very keen to be involved.

"We are willing to look into the incentives provided for the plantation companies," he said at a press conference after meeting representatives from the chicken, cattle, goat and pig industries.

Muhyiddin said plantation companies had the capability to venture into animal husbandry as they had vast land areas.

The involvement of plantation companies was also important. It helped to achieve the government's aim of lowering food imports while reducing the outflow of money by 2006 at the same time.

Muhyiddin also touched on the poultry breeders' request that the government review the ceiling price of chicken in the market. He admitted that the request was justifiable as the increase in prices of chicken feed had caused breeders' operational costs to rise by 40 percent.

"However, I don't want to speculate (on the increase in the price of chicken), as it is up to the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Committee to look into why the ceiling price needs to be reviewed," he said.