Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said it was one of the short-term measures taken to address the market’s shortage of chicken eggs.
A total of 18,880 egg producers application worth RM1.69 billion in subsidies had been approved up until February 15. Agriculture and Food Security Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Sabu said it was one of the short-term measures taken to address the market’s shortage of chicken eggs.
Besides providing subsidies to egg producers, other measures included allowing egg imports beginning in December last year, as well as imports of day-old chicks (DOC) from Brazil, New Zealand, France, and Australia to ensure a sufficient supply of egg chicken.
“In the long run, (the government aims to) reduce grain corn imports by 30% through farming on 80,000ha of land nationwide, with 1.44 million tonnes of grain corn expected to be produced by 2032,” he said in a parliamentary response to Che Alias Hamid’s question (PN-Kemaman).
Other measures, according to Mohamad, include looking for alternatives to animal feed ingredients such as palm kernel cake (PKC) and palm kernel expeller (PKE), as well as conducting studies on the black soldier fly, which are currently being conducted by relevant bodies such as the Malaysian Agriculture Research and Development Institution.
Meanwhile, Malaysia produced 13.3 billion eggs last year, a decrease from the 13.6 billion eggs produced in 2021, he said. According to him, a total of 13.4 billion eggs were produced in 2018, 10.9 billion in 2019, and 12.9 billion in 2020. ”
A total of 2.4 billion eggs were produced up to February 2023. Malaysia requires 11.6 billion eggs per year on average, with 968 million eggs consumed domestically each month. “Based on production records, we have sufficient eggs (in the country), and there is an excess of supplies that allows Malaysia to export eggs,” Datuk Wan Saifulruddin Wan Jan said in a parliamentary reply (PN-Tasek Gelugor).
According to Mohamad, Malaysia is the world’s fifth largest egg exporter, with the main importing countries being Singapore and Hong Kong. Malaysia exported approximately two million eggs in 2021, with 181 million eggs exported as of last month.