July 18, 2022

 

Malaysia egg shortage could worsen with more farms shutting down

 

Malaysia could experience a worsening egg shortage, as farmers said they are losing money and 40% of poultry farms have shut down in the country, from over 300 to 170 farms, The Star reported.

 

Farmers who continue to maintain output said they need more subsidies to keep low prices, especially as chicken feed prices have increased.

 

Many farmers said they are close to shutting down operations, as they lose MYR 0.05 (~US$0.011; MYR 1 = US$0.22) per egg even though the Malaysian government provides a subsidy of MYR 0.05 (~US$0.011) per egg.

 

Lee Yoon Yeau, deputy president of the Federation of Livestock Farmers Associations of Malaysia, said the Ukraine conflict has increased prices for maize and soybean meal prices up 50% between April and June 2022.

 

He said before the pandemic, maize was priced at MYR 800 (~US$179.65) per tonne. During the pandemic, it rose to MYR 1,300 (~US$291.94) per tonne. It is now MYR 1,800 (~US$404.22) per tonne.

 

He also said soybean meal prices increased from MYR 1,650 (~US$370.54) per tonne in January 2020 to MYR 2,650 (~US$595.10) per tonne now.

 

Lee said egg output costs MYR 0.45 (~US$0.10) per egg, but the government ceiling price for Grade C eggs were MYR 0.35 (~US$0.079) sen per egg.

 

He said losses amount to MYR 1.04 million (~US$233.550) per day and MYR 42 million (~US$9.4 million) per month in the industry, with a current daily production of 28 million tonnes.

 

The Malaysian government has announced an MYR 0.02 sen (~US$0.0045) increase in the egg ceiling price, but did not mention anything about subsidies.

 

Lee, the chairman of the federation's poultry layer unit, said that the organisation needed a subsidy of MYR 0.08 (~US$0.018) per egg in order to be able to sell at cost.

 

Lee said that many small farms had permanently closed their doors, while larger farms had reduced their output, primarily because they could not continue to operate at a loss.

 

Because egg prices were previously only regulated during holiday seasons, Lee noted that floating the prices was not a novel concept in Malaysia.

 

-      The Star