For Chen Lin and Bernadette Christina
SINGAPORE / JAKARTA (Reuters) – Indonesian authorities hope to reach an agreement with Singapore to start exporting chickens in a few weeks, officials said, as the city-state struggles to find alternative sources of supply after another neighboring Malaysia restricts sales.
As a further sign of global food shortages and growing supply chain problems, Malaysia halted chicken exports this month until local production and rising costs stabilized.
The move had an impact in Singapore with restaurants and street stalls raising the prices of their de facto national dish, rice with chicken.
Susiwijono Moegiarso, a senior official at Indonesia’s Ministry of Economic Coordination, said authorities had held “technical talks” with Singapore and hoped exports could begin this month.
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The Singapore Food Agency (SFA) said in a statement that it was “working closely” with the Indonesian authorities on accrediting the country as a potential source of chicken imports.
Indonesia, the largest and most populous country in Southeast Asia with more than 270 million people, currently has a surplus in chicken production.
Indonesia produces between 55 and 60 million birds a week, with a surplus of between 15 and 20% after domestic consumption, Achmad Dawami, president of the Aviram Breeders Association of Indonesia, told Reuters .
Exports to Singapore, which has an estimated demand of 3.6 million to 4 million birds a month, could help close the gap, Dawami said.
Singapore wanted to import live chickens to keep its domestic slaughterhouses operational, Dawami said, noting that Indonesian producers preferred to export slaughtered chicken because they had no experience in sending live birds.
“Hopefully in the next two weeks there will be an understanding, if we have to wait months we will lose momentum,” Dawami said.
Malaysia decided to partially lift the ban on exporting certain premium chickens last week.
But the ban on exporting commercial chicken chicken – which makes up the majority of Singapore’s chicken imports from Malaysia – and other types of chicken products will be maintained.
Chicken prices, one of the cheapest sources of protein in Malaysia, have skyrocketed in recent months as global feed shortages exacerbated by the war between Russia and Ukraine disrupt production.
(Reporting by Chen Lin in Singapore and Bernadette Christina Munthe in Jakarta; Ed Davies Edition)
Copyright 2022 Thomson Reuters.
