Cake suggests finding mechanisms to overcome high chicken prices

ALOR SETAR - The Customer Association of Kedah (Cake) hopes the government will find the best mechanism to overcome the issue of chicken prices increasing following the supply shortage a few days ago.

Cake president Mohamad Yusrizal Yusoff said the chicken price increase happened a few days ago, and the ceiling price of RM9.40 per kilogramme of chicken that was standardised in the market was felt as high still.

He said the chicken price, including its organs, sold in the market now reaches RM18 to RM25 per chicken.

"We hope there will be certain mechanisms in place to drop the chicken prices. If we look at the chicken market, if there is dumping in the market, it would lower the market price.

"We hope that the Agrofood Policy, which has its principles and targets by 2025, will remove 100 per cent to 140 per cent of the chicken production. It must be looked into, and immediate action must be taken," he told Sinar on Friday.

He said such when asked to comment on the increase in chicken prices in several states where vendors received a higher price for the raw materials.

Yusrizal said more chicken breeders must be established to increase production quantities and enable the industry to thrive.

"We should not hope for the current industry to reduce dependency on chicken breeding inputs such as corn and so on from foreign markets," he said.

He added that actions must be taken to ensure the raw materials are sold at a decent price.

"The prices of the goods rising or falling would continue to force users to purchase them. We hope immediate measures are taken by the Madani government to develop the economy.

"This is the method of developing the economy, whereby by developing the industry, the cost of goods would reduce," he said.

In the same development, Mohamad Yusrizal said Cake had yet to receive any complaints from users and food entrepreneurs.

"The issue was not raised as it was felt that it had yet to reach the ceiling price. Not many would complain. During the festive seasons, the drop was not felt by many individuals as the demands at the time were low," he said.

He found that demand for chicken is currently high again, but chicken production has remained low.

"This (low chicken production) was the factor that caused the current rise and drop of chicken prices. We didn't receive any complaints caused by chickens that were still under ceiling prices," he said.

Sinar previously reported that chicken prices in the market were forced to revert between RM9 and RM9.28 due to supplies decreasing several days ago.

Chicken breeder and supplier Mazlina Kamrudin said the prices were forced to increase to bear operational costs and to avoid losses for breeders.