Malaysia-Meat trade steady.

MALAYSIA-MEAT TRADE STEADY.

Despite fears over the consumption of pork following the outbreak of the swine flu virus, demand for other types of meat has remained relatively stable.

"There is no big jump in demand for our products,’’ said QL Resources Bhd group accountant and group head of investor relations, Freddie Yap.

"It has been stable as we are in the basic food such as eggs, poultry and fish. Fishball and crabstick products are still popular.’’

QL is mainly involved in the manufacture of marine products, oil palm plantation and milling, and feed commodities and livestock farming.

Industry players said demand for pork products had fallen slightly in the past week.

Traders say beef, chicken and fish products could benefit from an increase in demand arising from the swine flu scare

"People are still consuming pork products but in lower quantities. Recently, there has been an increase in demand for chicken for which sales are slowly picking up," a poultry trader said.

Traders said beef, chicken and fish products could benefit from an increase in demand arising from the influenza A(H1N1) scare. Their prices could also increase on expectations that consumers would turn more to chicken and fish.

However, there is no risk of infection from well-cooked pork and pork products, said the World Health Organisation.

According to the Federation of Livestock Farmers’ Association of Malaysia, the retail price of broilers rose by 40 sen to RM5.20 per kg on April 28 from RM4.80 on April 23. A month ago, the price was RM4.70.

Meanwhile, the ex-farm price of swine was RM6.30 per kg in Selangor yesterday. It was RM6 on April 5.

Penang and Province Wellesley Farmers’ Association secretary Victor Loo said the farm price increase in broiler prices (from RM3.80 to RM4.30 per kg) was due to higher prices of fertilisers. Chicken feed per tonne is now RM1,700 compared with RM1,300 per tonne in 2004, a rise of about 30%.

According to Loo, the price hike was because farmers had been selling chicken below cost at between RM2.80 and RM3.80 per kg in the early part of the year.

Demand for broiler meat was also returning on improved sentiment over the economy, said Loo, who is also executive director of CAB Cakaran Corp Bhd, a broiler meat production group based in Penang.

"In the first quarter of 2009, demand for broiler meat dropped by about 5% due to the economic crisis," he said.

The Penang-based association has urged the domestic trade and consumer affairs ministry not to re-impose a ceiling price for broiler meat as the price of chicken feed had increased by over 30%. In 2004, the Government fixed the ceiling price of broiler meat at RM4 per kg but had it removed last year.

Looking forward, broiler meat prices were expected to drop slightly in the third quarter as broiler production picked up to meet market demand, said Loo.