Malaysia is temporarily suspending the shipment of chickens at the beginning of June due to a shortage of orders in their country.
Specifically in Southeast Asia, India prohibits the export of wheat, while the Indonesian government prohibits the export of palm oil.
As the world is headed for its worst food emergency in decades following Russia’s occupation of Ukraine, the world stands relatively little hope.
One specialist on agricultural issues has pointed out concerns about critics’ plans to increase “food nationalism” by governments in the area.
Over the past year, chicken prices in Malaysia have considerably risen. Some stores have imposed limits on how much they will allow customers to buy to save their supplies.
On Monday, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob of Malaysia said the Southeast Asian country would stop exporting as many as 3.6 million chickens per month “until domestic prices and production levels stabilise.”
The government’s priority is our own citizens, said the governor in a statement.
Among the places most affected by the impending implementation of meat bans in Singapore are neighboring countries Singapore, where Malaysian imports currently account for over a third of its chicken-supplies.
Most of these birds are imported from overseas and slaughtered live before being chilled in Singapore.
The store later offered a promotion to encourage the freezing and shelving of chicken products, which led to widespread panic-buying.
“While there may be some temporary disruption to the supply of chilled chicken, frozen-refrigerated chicken options remain available to mitigate the shortage,” the government agency said. “We also recommend that consumers purchase only what they need.”
Impact of war
The latest development in the international food crisis is the Malaysian ban on chicken exports.
Rising food prices, as predicted in the report by the World Bank last month, may push hundreds of millions of people into poverty and low nutrition.
Ukraine supplies a great deal of wheat to Russia, and that currency has decreased as Russia extended its occupation in the country.
Ukraine is the world’s largest exporter of wheat, and its production has been in decline since one of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine.
This has caused increased prices for wheat all around the world, which obviously has a risk of shortages in the countries it supplies.
The opening of international corridors enabling millions of tons of grain in Ukraine to leave the country should be the goal of the international community’s efforts. Yuliia Svyrydenko, first deputy prime minister of Ukraine, stated this on Monday in an interview with the BBC.
Also speaking to the BBC’s economics editor Faisal Islam on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, David Beasley, executive director of the UN World Food Programme, declared that Russia’s blocking of food exports from Ukraine was tantamount to “declaring war on global food security.”
We are facing the worst food crisis since World War II, he said. “When you take 400 million people fed by the food that comes out of Ukraine, and you also close it off, then add on top of that problems with fertiliser, droughts, food costs, fuel costs, we are looking at a hellstorm on earth,” Mr Beasley said.
‘Food nationalism’ at work?
Wiltshire wheat prices jumped once again due to Indian monetary authorities’ procedure of banning exports of the food staple. The country acknowledged that the heatwave was accountable for pushing domestic values to an all-time high and took the anticipated measure to protect consumers.
India had promised to exchange diesel for staples to make up part of the loss by Ukraine. While the threat of losses was rising, commodity traders expected supplies from India to make up part of the shortfall.
Palm oil prices also rose in recent days because of efforts by Indonesia, the leading producer of the crucial ingredient that goes into soap and processed foods, to limit supplies of cooking oil in Indonesia. Over the weekend, the supply restriction was lifted.
Examples that contribute to the concept of “food nationalism” have been stated by Sonia Akter, an assistant professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.
Governments impose these restrictions recognizing that they feel it is of utmost importance to protect the wellbeing of their citizens first.
From the time of the 2007-2008 food crisis, it’s expected that the signs of such crises will continue to worsen as more and more nations enact similar laws, which is likely to increase the burden on the market significantly.
Professor William C. Chen of Nanyang Technological University in Singapore believes the joint order regarding exports is temporary and is not a full-fledged food nationalism.
Other nations have imposed bans on food commodities but have later exonerated them, according to Mr Chen, who is a teacher at the college’s Department of Food Science and Technology.
Mr Chen, who is the director of the university’s food science and technology programme, mentioned that other nations have imposed bans on specific food items but have since decided not to continue those bans.
This is a great demonstration of the interconnected nature of the food supply chain, where no single country can fully depend on itself for all categories of foodstuffs needed by its people.
