KL faces chicken shortage amid pig-borne virus scare
KL faces chicken shortage amid pig-borne virus scare
KUALA LUMPUR (AFP): Malaysia is facing a chicken shortage as most ethnic Chinese consumers switch to poultry amid a pig-borne encephalitis outbreak which has killed 85 people, reports said Saturday.
Demand for chicken has gone up by at least 30 percent, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Megat Junid Megat Ayob was quoted as saying in The Star. Pork consumption has reportedly slumped 70 percent.
Megat Junid said some traders were cashing in on the epidemic by raising the price of dressed chicken above the fixed ceiling of six ringgit (US$1.6) a kilogram (2.2 pounds).
"The daily production of one million birds, of which 200,000 are for export, is insufficient to meet the demand," he said.
"We estimate that we need 1.1 million birds daily for local consumption. Until producers increase production, we may have to consider the idea of importing chicken from neighboring countries."
Megat Junid said the ministry had set up a taskforce to identify ways to raise chicken production and check price hikes.
The government has warned errant traders faced prosecution and having their licenses revoked.
The epidemic broke out in farms in northern Perak state in October and spread to Negeri Sembilan two months later, prompting a health scare and crippling Malaysia's 1.5 billion ringgit ($395 million) pig industry.
Most of the Chinese community, who make-up one third of Malaysia's 22 million population, have opted for chicken and seafood despite assurances the virus cannot be transmitted through the meat. Pork is considered forbidden for ethnic Muslims, who account for the majority of Malaysia's population.
Malaysia expects to kill 950,000 pigs to contain the Japanese encephalitis and a second mystery virus suspected to be responsible for most of the deaths.
The official Bernama news agency reported Saturday that some 100 pig farms rearing 150,000 hogs in Malacca state, south of Negeri Sembilan, have been given one year to shut down amid the virus scare.
"The directive to close down the pig farms is made in the interest of all and the farmers themselves" chief minister Abu Zahar Isnin was cited as saying. "Pig farming raises various environmental problems and now the viral disease has become a threat."
Abu Zahar said pig farmers in the state have no right to protest the closure order as they were all operating without a licence.
The state government had revoked all pig farming licenses in 1991 but still allowed some farmers to operate in a district, which has since been developed and not suitable for pig rearing anymore, he added.
Pig farmers in Malacca reportedly supply 5,000 pigs weekly to neighboring Singapore, before the republic banned all imports of live pigs on March 19 after a Singaporean died of the virus.