THE Agriculture and Food Industries Ministry (Mafi) today said food supply is still sufficient in the country and has not reached crisis level as claimed by some quarters.

Its deputy secretary-general for development, Badrul Hisham Mohd, said though there are hiccups concerning supply, particularly for chicken and wheat, they have not affected domestic supply.

“This is because 94% of chicken output is for local supply.

“Overall, our country produces 54 million chickens per month and this production capacity is able to meet domestic needs.”

He said 72% of the overall cost of rearing chickens is feed, which is imported from countries like Argentina and Brazil.

“The corn used for the feed is no longer grown on a large scale in Malaysia.

“As such, the ministry is moving towards creating a cornmeal industry to solve this issue.”

He also suggested palm oil producers allocate a portion of farmland to grow corn towards reducing the dependency on other countries for cornmeal as chicken feed, which is costly.

Badrul Hisham said India’s move to ban wheat export has no effect on Malaysia, which mainly imports the commodity from Australia and the United States.

India exports only 1.9% of its wheat to Malaysia, he added.

He said Mafi and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry are moving towards solving the supply issue to ensure people have sufficient food supply. – Bernama, May 30, 2022.