Malaysian farmers threaten to dump chicks
Malaysian farmers threaten to dump chicks
KUALA LUMPUR (Reuter): Malaysian poultry farmers have threatened to dump two million chicks at the Agriculture Ministry to protest against a slump in chicken prices, the national Bernama news agency reported yesterday.
After earlier dropping a threat to kill a million birds, 20 affiliate members of the Federation of Poultry Breeders Associations of Malaysia meeting yesterday agreed to the dumping action in two weeks.
"If the issue is not solved...we may dump the chicks at the ministry," a federation official was quoted over a private television station.
The meeting overturned an earlier decision by federation president Chia Keok Kong which blocked a bid by members to send a million chicks to the ministry yesterday.
The farmers had earlier dropped another plan to gas or bury the chicks alive after protests from horrified animal lovers and consumer groups.
Seven lorries filled with more than 800,000 day-old chicks from four states had already arrived at the federation's office just outside Kuala Lumpur, Bernama reported.
Private television station TV3 showed people arriving at the federation's office to take the chicks home in the boots of their cars.
The government on Thursday tried to solve the issue by appealing to its citizens to eat as many chickens as they could.
"We ask the public to help solve this problem by consuming more chicken. This opportunity won't last long," Agriculture Minister Sulaiman Daud told reporters on Thursday.
The flap arose after poultry breeders claimed that the slump in chicken prices threatened their businesses.
About 1.08 million chickens are supplied to the Malaysian market daily, while demand amounts to only 900,000.
Chia said he had to consider "the emotions of (poultry) producers who had mortgaged houses, land and even signed personal guarantees with banks and are unable to repay the loans now because of low chicken prices".
Chia said the farmer now received between 1.20 ringgit and 1.40 ringgit (US$0.47 and $0.55) for one kg of chicken. His costs totaled 2.80 ringgit ($1.10) a kg.
Sulaiman blamed the glut on farmers' misreading of demand during two major festivals in Malaysia in February.
The farmers had earlier accused the government of flooding the market with poultry imports during the Moslem Idul Fitri and Chinese New Year festivals which coincided last month for the first time in three decades.
Farmers said high world corn prices had raised poultry production costs by between 20 and 30 percent since the start of this year and some operators may be forced to close.
There are about 90 breeder farms producing day-old chicks in Malaysia, about 1,000 commercial layer farms producing eggs and another 1,000 broiler farms which produce meat.