Malaysia will stop exporting chickens from today in a protectionist move to bolster domestic food supply, sparking distress in neighboring Singapore where chicken rice is a national dish.
Malaysian Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob announced last week that, beginning today, Malaysia will ban exports of 3.6 million chickens a month until domestic prices and production stabilize.
The move is felt most in Singapore, which sources one-third of its poultry from Malaysia.
Photo: AFP
Almost all the chickens are imported live to Singapore, where they are slaughtered and chilled. Singaporean consumers have been rushing to stock up on fresh chicken ahead of the ban, with local media reporting that shelves in some wet markets and supermarkets have been cleared of poultry.
The Singapore Straits Times said chicken sellers predicted the cost of chilled chicken could rise by up to 30 percent, sending chicken dish prices soaring.
The Singaporean government has urged consumers to switch to frozen chicken and other alternative meats, and is exploring new markets for fresh chicken.
However, there is concern over the fate of the ubiquitous chicken rice that is sold everywhere from hawker stalls to top hotels. Popular eatery Tian Tian Hainanese Chicken Rice, which gets its poultry entirely from Malaysia, reportedly said it will introduce pork and seafood dishes instead of using frozen chicken if it fails to find new suppliers.
Malaysia’s protectionist move comes as countries worldwide grapple with soaring food prices, fueled partly by the Ukraine war. Ukraine is a major exporter of corn and grains that are key components of chicken feed. India has restricted sugar and wheat exports, while Indonesia temporarily halted — and then lifted — palm oil sales abroad.
Apart from the export ban, Malaysia also abolished import permits for chicken and other foods to boost food supply and curb prices amid public anger. It has earlier capped chicken prices and allocated subsidies for farmers squeezed by rising cost of chicken feed, partly caused by a weakening Malaysian currency.
The export ban came as a surprise by Ismail’s government, which took power in August last year and faces a general election next year. The government is also investigating claims that cartels are controlling the price and supply of chicken.
The ban not only caused alarm in Singapore, but also troubled smaller Malaysian poultry farmers who supply to Singapore to help keep their operations afloat.
The Malaysian government did not say how long the export ban will last, but officials expect supply and prices to normalize within a month.
Taichung reported the steepest fall in completed home prices among the six special municipalities in the first quarter of this year, data compiled by Taiwan Realty Co (台灣房屋) showed yesterday. From January through last month, the average transaction price for completed homes in Taichung fell 8 percent from a year earlier to NT$299,000 (US$9,483) per ping (3.3m²), said Taiwan Realty, which compiled the data based on the government’s price registration platform. The decline could be attributed to many home buyers choosing relatively affordable used homes to live in themselves, instead of newly built homes in the city’s prime property market, Taiwan Realty
The government yesterday approved applications by Alphabet Inc’s Google to invest NT$27.08 billion (US$859.98 million) in Taiwan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said in a statement. The Department of Investment Review approved two investments proposed by Google, with much of the funds to be used for data processing and electronic information supply services, as well as inventory procurement businesses in the semiconductor field, the ministry said. It marks the second consecutive year that Google has applied to increase its investment in Taiwan. Google plans to infuse NT$25.34 billion into Charter Investments Ltd (特許投資顧問) through its Singapore-based subsidiary Fructan Holdings Singapore Pte Ltd, and
JET JUICE: The war on Iran’s secondary effects have seen fuel prices skyrocket, knocking flight schedules down to earth in return as airlines struggle with costs Airline passengers should brace for more irritation in the next few months as carriers worldwide cancel flights and ground planes to cope with stratospheric increases in jet-fuel prices. Dutch flag carrier KLM is the latest company to cut its schedule, saying on Thursday that it would scrap 80 return flights at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport in the coming month. That puts it in the same league as United Airlines Holdings Inc, Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Cathay Pacific Airways Ltd, which have all pruned itineraries to mitigate costs. Global capacity for next month has been reduced by about 3 percentage points, with all
FORESEEABLE CONSEQUENCES: New technology always comes with new innovations by the iniquitous in exploiting users for financial gain or more nefarious ends Artificial intelligence (AI) “agents” say they can save users time and energy by automating tasks, but the growing power of systems such as OpenClaw is putting cybersecurity experts on edge. Powered by a wave of hype, OpenClaw today says it has more than three million users worldwide. The system allows users to create so-called agents, tools based on a large language model (LLM) such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT or Anthropic PBC’s Claude, that can carry out online tasks. “We’ve moved from an AI you could talk with via a chatbot to an agentic AI, which can take action... the threat and the risks are
RSS