The chickens were grabbing the headlines yesterday with Malaysia halting the export of 3.6 million chickens a month from 1 Jun 2022 onwards.
This is going to be a big impact because chicken is the most consumed meat in Singapore – each of us ate 36kg in 2020 on average – and we import about a third of the chicken supply from Malaysia.
Yes, there are alternative sources and we import most of the chickens from Brazil (49%). But these are frozen chickens. In fact, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) only allows live chickens to be imported from West Malaysia.
This means we will likely see a shortage of fresh chickens and I think it is hard for Singaporeans to switch to frozen chickens. Habits die hard. The lack of supply would bid up the prices of fresh chickens.
This would affect the chicken rice stalls too. Those who insist on using fresh chickens may not get their supply. Switching to frozen chickens may affect their cooking process and even change the taste.
These are first-world problems though but Singaporeans are a complaint bunch. Be sure to hear some of them soon. I love my chickens.
The chicken problem is just one of the many issues to come. We have been talking about inflation for many months and most people didn’t really bother about it until they feel it in their lives.
It took months for Singaporeans and Malaysians to feel one of the effects of the war between Ukraine and Russia. We talked about them as big wheat exporters but we just read and don’t think it affects us.
Well, wheat is one of the key ingredients for chicken feed and farmers bought less feed due to the rising cost and in turn, fewer chickens were bred. Suddenly, Malaysia realised they don’t have enough chickens for themselves.
Turning to vegan may not help as fertilizer prices have soared too. Vegetable price hikes may come next.
So far, Singapore has experienced high wholesale electricity, petrol price hikes and now chickens. I believe this is just the beginning.
I don’t think we really understand the problem of inflation because it has been a long time since we lived through one. The new normal is not normal and our financial decisions have to consider for what’s coming ahead.
On a seemingly unrelated but actually related news, Liv @ MB condo was reported to have sold more than 75% of its units over the weekend at an average price of $2,387 psf.
Those who can afford comfortably will do fine. But those who over-stretched their finances would face a challenge when the mortgage rates double. Couple it with rising prices on the food table and transport, there might just not be enough cash flow to go around.
