On Monday (30 May), the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) assured Malaysians that the food supply in the country is still sufficient and it has not reached a crisis level as claimed by some quarters.
According to Harian Metro, its deputy secretary-general (Development), Datuk Badrul Hisham Mohd said although there are some disruption in the food supply chain, particularly chicken and wheat, it had not affected the domestic supply.
“This is because about 94% of the chicken output is for local supply and only 6% for export.”
“Overall, this country produces around 54 million chickens per month and the production capacity is able to meet the domestic need,” he said.
Badrul also said that 72% of the overall cost of rearing chickens was for the feed imported from Brazil and Argentina.
“The corn used for the domestic chicken feed is no longer grown in Malaysia on a big scale and because of this, MAFI is moving towards creating a cornmeal industry in order to solve the problem of importing it,” he added.
Meanwhile, he suggested that palm oil producers allocate a portion of their farmland to grow corn to reduce the country’s dependency on other countries for cornmeal as costly chicken feed.
When asked if India’s ban on wheat export, he said it had no effect on Malaysia as our main sources of wheat were from Australia and the United States.
He added that India only exported about 1.9% of its wheat to Malaysia.
Meanwhile, he said MAFI is working with the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) to solve the supply issue to ensure the people had sufficient food supply.
, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) assured Malaysians that the food supply in the country is still sufficient and it has not reached a crisis level as claimed by some quarters.){kind=link}