What Is Malaysia Going To Do With Its Chicken Surplus?

As a result of an export ban on chicken, Malaysia is dealing with a small oversupply of the bird, reports several news organizations.

In order to protect its supply of chicken and to address the rising cost of the poultry, the Asian country made the decision to stop exporting chicken in June, per Bloomberg. Always intended as a temporary measure, the lack of chicken exports affected other countries, including Malaysia's neighbor Singapore, which buys about one-third of its chickens from Malaysia. 

As a result, Singapore has reportedly said it will begin to import chickens from other counties, including Indonesia and Thailand (via Channel News Asia). Malaysia's measures were not unheard of, per Bloomberg, as other countries around the world have limited exports of goods as the supply chain remains affected by the conflict in Ukraine and environmental issues. The government measures have been successful in protecting the country's chicken supply and lowering prices, reports Reuters.

Now with a small surplus of chicken at hand, Malaysia announced on August 1, 2022, that it will resume exports. "At this point of time, we are able to produce 106% of our needs for chicken," Minister of Agriculture and Food Industries Ronald Kiandee said, as reported by Bloomberg. "This means we have the capacity to export." 

The government had been facing pressure from citizens to lift the ban as people feared Singapore would no longer buy from Malaysia, per Channel News Asia. With the ban being lifted, partial exports will resume to Singapore. Those imports include live kampung chickens and black chickens, as well as poultry products that include nuggets and hot dogs. One major item that Singapore still will not be allowed to get from Malaysia is commercial broiler chickens as they remain under the export ban (per another Channel News Asia article. 

At the time of the export ban, another short-term measure was announced that Malaysia would create a stockpile of chickens, which will now be done through the Farmers Organisation Board, per Malay Mail.