The Malaysian Insight

WITH the average Malaysian consuming 400 eggs a year, business should be great for egg farmers, but in reality, it is getting more challenging every year.

In a dialogue with Deputy Agriculture and Agro-based Industries Minister Sim Tze Tzin at the Penang Veterinary Services Department (DVS) office in Bukit Tengah, industry players shared their troubles. 

Their troubles over the years have also contributed to the recent spike in egg prices, following a sudden shortage.

“Several factors caused the price hike,” said Tan Eng Guan, the general manager of SHH Poultry Farm in Nibong Tebal.

Among them are climate change, which causes stress and illnesses to the chickens and lowers their egg production; gradually increasing prices for imported chicken feed; and the closure of egg farms that could no longer sustain their businesses, he said.

“It is a fact that we have a shortage of eggs in the northern states. Many farms are small and they can’t afford converting from outdoor to indoor poultry farming.

“So, they eventually shut down. In the Valdor (in Nibong Tebal) area, we used to produce a million eggs daily. Now we produce 400,000 eggs at most.

“Land is also expensive and unsuitable for chicken farming. This issue is not one or two days old. We have been facing it for two years,” Tan said.

The price of eggs recently jumped by almost 30% in a week. The price for a carton of 10 eggs reportedly hit RM5.11 compared with less than RM4 a week before.

Why has egg prices spiked if the shortage had been ongoing for two years now?

Tan said it would take some time for the effects to be felt and northern egg dealers were also getting supplies from farms in the south.

“To know why we have a price hike now, we have to ask the farms in the south why the supply was short.”

Sim said the recent temporary closure of a farm in Perak, where the chickens were suspected of contracting bird flu, also contributed to the egg shortage in the north.

As the farm could not supply eggs, there was a shortage in the market, which led to panic buying by some egg dealers, driving up the prices.

“We still have a shortage but the situation is gradually returning to normal. We shouldn’t have a supply problem for Christmas and Chinese New Year,” he said.

Hard to modernise

During the dialogue, Sim also asked egg and chicken farmers where the industry was heading, and whether the older and smaller farms could convert to the cleaner environmentally controlled closed-house poultry farming.

There are only three closed-house farms in Penang.

Ng Yam Keng, a chicken farmer in his 70s, said many farmers were like him – in their advanced years, and rearing just a few thousand chickens to get by.

“The cost is very high for our old farms. It may take us three years to convert. We don’t have the funds,” he told Sim.

Penang and Province of Wellesley Farmers’ Association president Tan Chee Hee said the government could help old farmers and smaller farms by making loan applications simpler.

He said many did not know they could seek tax exemptions for re-investments and farm expansions, and other benefits.

Meanwhile, Ong, a representative from Heap Soon Farming, a Penang-based company with a farm in Perak, said farmers have to deal with different local council regulations in each state.

“The cost to set up a new farm is very high and time consuming and we face regulations that are not standardised.

“It is complicated to apply for land conversion in Perak, where we must also get the approvals of 21 departments before we can set up the farm and do business.”

Farmers must modernise

Sim said there was no other way for farmers except to modernise and adopt good agricultural and husbandry practices to move forward.

The ministry could help arrange meetings with the government-owned Agrobank to see how farmers could get loans at lower interest rates to upgrade their operations to closed-house farming, he said.

“We want to help everyone but you need to help us, too. Come and see us with your proposals in one voice on how to improve the industry because you should know best.”

Sim said he had proposed a self-help fund for the industry, where farmers made contributions that could be used to assist those facing problems.

Through DVS, the ministry met more than 300 chicken and egg farmers nationwide. – December 22, 2018.