By Chen Lin and Mei Mei Chu

SINGAPORE/KUALA LUMPUR – Singapore fears a severe shortage of chicken rice. Malaysia, a major supplier, has halted all exports of chicken from Wednesday.

Street stalls and restaurants in the city-state face rising prices or even closing down entirely due to a shortage of staple foods from Malaysia.

Malaysia’s latest export ban shows the growing severity of global food shortages. Countries are reeling from Russia’s invasion in Ukraine and other extreme weather events. (For an interactive graphic, click here: https://tmsnrt.rs/3wZqRBV)

Protests have been erupted in Argentina, Indonesia and Greece over rising prices of basic foodstuffs. [L5N2XA3U7]

Daniel Tan is the proprietor of OK Chicken Rice, which is a chain that includes seven stalls. He said Malaysia’s ban on chicken rice will cause “catastrophic” effects for sellers like him.

The ban could mean that we would no longer be able to market. He said it was like McDonald’s (NYSE) without burgers.

According to him, stalls often source live birds from Malaysia. However, they’ll have to transition to frozen chicken by the end of this week. They expect a significant drop in sales as customers respond to the new quality.

Singapore, despite being one of Asia’s wealthiest, is confined to a 730-square-kilometre (280 sq. miles) area. This means that it relies on imports for food, energy, and many other products. Data from Singapore Food Agency, (SFA) shows that almost all its chicken comes from overseas: 34% are imported from Malaysia, 49% come from Brazil, and 13% from the United States.

The country’s 5.5million people love simple white poached chicken, rice and broth. This dish is often widely available in hawker centres for around S$4 ($2.92) and can be purchased at most restaurants.

SFA said that Brazil’s frozen chicken can compensate the shortage and encouraged consumers to select other proteins such as fish.

Malaysia is facing high prices and has stopped exporting chickens to the country until production stabilizes.

Since February, prices have been capitulated at 8.90 Ringgit ($2.03)/bird. A subsidy of 729.43 Million Ringgit ($166,000,000) was also set aside for poultry producers.

Malaysia imports many of the ingredients in chicken feed, including soybean and grains. The government has to look at other options due to a worldwide shortage of feed.

Syaizul Abullah Syamil Zulkaffly said that birds grown slower when fed lower quality feed. This slows down the supply chain.

Syaizul had previously been able to harvest broiler chickens up to seven times per calendar year. This was with 45,000 birds per cycle. He expects to harvest only five cycles this year.

Syaizul felt the pinch from higher operating costs in the pandemic and says that the ban on exports will make matters worse for poultry farmers.

He said that “I don’t know if the industry can sustain me…for the next five to 10 years” and added that he had to take out debt in order to pay his bills.

Maybe I should work in a petrol station, or do something else that is easier than managing a chicken farm.

($1 = 1.3713 Singapore dollars)

($1 = 4.3770 ringgit)