The Agriculture Ministry should release statistics on poultry supply in the country to verify the claims by poultry farmers that they are suffering losses due to an oversupply of chicken in the domestic market.

Era Consumer president N Marimuthu today said the real problem lies with the ministry for not revealing any figures on the local poultry market.

Marimuthu was reacting to an Utusan Malaysia report today which said the Federation of Livestock Farmers Association of Malaysia (FLFAM) threatened to kill between six to nine million chicks in a month if the ministry does not stop importing chicken.

[People,] dont press the alarm button for no reason. The real problem is that the ministry did not reveal the data. How can these happen suddenly? he told malaysiakini .

The daily also quoted FLFAM poultry section chairperson Tung Ah Lan as saying that action has to be taken because poultry farmers nationwide are incurring losses due to an oversupply in the market.

The killing of the chicks will start next week and was agreed by almost 3,000 poultry farmers who are members of the association, Tung said.

Somewhere, someone

According to Marimuthu it is common for farmers to kill their chicks when they are making losses.

However, he said there must be some statistics, somewhere, kept by someone to verify the farmers claims.

Between 1.1 to 1.3 million chicken are slaughtered daily. Local consumption is around 800,000 to 900,000. The rest are exported, he added.

Meanwhile, Marimuthu said it is important for both the ministry and the farmers to meet and resolve the issue.

The ministry must come out, open their mouth and talk (about the issue), he added.

He also took the farmers to task, saying that When they are making money, they dont complain.

Dairy farming

Marimuthu also said the consumption pattern is changing as more people are avoiding eating chicken.

There has been a lot of adverse advertisement on chicken, he said, citing reports that claimed chickens were injected with growth hormones.

One way of overcoming the crisis, according to Marimuthu, is for farmers to explore other areas such as dairy farming.

He said there is a demand for dairy products as Malaysia imports 80 percent of the beef supply and more than 90 percent of dairy products consumed here.

Why dont they diverse their business into these industries? he asked.