July 25, 2022

 

Indonesia may set up Batam farm to export fresh chickens to Singapore

 

Suryo Pratomo, the Indonesian Ambassador to Singapore, said he discussed with Indonesian producers about setting up a new farm in Batam state to export fresh chicken to Singapore if there is sufficient demand over the next year, The Straits Times reported.

 

He said by the end of the year, they hope to understand Singapore's market well enough to decide whether or not to establish a farm there.

 

Suryo was speaking at the fully automated Leong Hup Distribution warehouse in Fishery Port Road, where the first shipment of frozen chicken from Indonesia arrived on July 24.

 

Suryo said the shipment of 50 tonnes of frozen chicken originated in Jakarta. The majority of the purchasers, according to The Straits Times, were chicken rice stalls, and they have reportedly already been sold out.

 

More shipments will arrive in the coming weeks, with a total of 1,000 tonnes of frozen chicken expected to arrive in Singapore by end 2022.

 

Singapore imported nearly 73,000 tonnes of chicken from Malaysia in 2021, for comparison.

 

Alfred Leek, procurement director at Leong Hup Distribution, said the frozen chickens from Indonesia are larger—weighing between 2 and 2.3 kg—than the 1.5 to 1.6 kg frozen chickens his company imports from the US, Thailand, Brazil, and Argentina.

 

Frozen chicken is shipped from Indonesia in four days as opposed to 30 to 60 days from the United States, Brazil, and Argentina.

 

Leek said the Indonesian shipment marks the first time frozen chickens with their heads and feet intact have been imported. He said the industry now has a new option.

 

The ban on Malaysian chicken exports, according to Professor William Chen, director of the food science and technology programme at Nanyang Technological University, has made Singapore more proactive in seeking out alternative sources.

 

As Indonesia has not previously been Singapore's primary source of chicken, he said having frozen chicken from Indonesia opens a new supply source.

 

-      The Straits Times