No chicken price hike during Ramadan - Hasan Malek

The price of chicken will be maintained during Ramadan based on adequate production supply to meet demand during the festive month.

Domestic Trade, Cooperatives and Consumerism Minister, Datuk Seri Hasan Malek said the ministry and poultry suppliers and breeders were now negotiating a reasonable ceiling price.

"Based on our discussion with producers, there is an adequate supply of chicken, in fact supply is more than demand. So there should be no question of a chicken price hike.

"In the past, the Price Control Scheme was enforced two weeks before and two weeks after Hari Raya. Now for the whole month of Ramadan, the price of chicken will be maintained," he told reporters after visiting PPNJ Poultry & Meat Sdn Bhd, a chicken processing factory near here on Sunday.

He said the ministry was now studying the Price Control Scheme and its findings would be announced soon.

Touching on the price of domestic chicken, he said statistics from 2006 to 2012 showed production was higher than consumption.

In 2006, local consumption was 390 million chickens which rose by 52 per cent to 594 million chickens in 2012.

However, the production of broilers in 2006 was 427 million chicks which rose by 49 per cent to 637 million chicks in 2012, he said.

"So based on economic theory, the price of chicken should not have risen. But the price of chicken did rise and defied the theory. This shows there is a market disruption," said Hasan.

Apart from that, he said studies by the Malaysia Competition Commission (MyCC) showed there were only 292 poultry farms registered as valid business entities with the Malaysian Companies Commissioner (SSM).

The total covered just 12.1 per cent of the overall 2,402 poultry farms recorded by the Veterinary Services Department, he said.

"I am calling on all breeders who have not registered with SSM to do so to assist in collection of data," he said.