SINGAPORE - Fresh broiler chickens from Malaysia are expected to hit retailers' shelves in limited quantities from Thursday afternoon.
Mr James Sim, head of business development at local chicken importer Kee Song Food, which supplies major brick-and-mortar retailers with chickens, as well as online ones, said the live fowls will reach its abattoir on Thursday morning.
"Our premium fresh chicken will be available at major retailers on the same day from 2pm onwards," he said.
Fresh chickens are also available for sale on the company's website. A fresh normal whole chicken weighing in at 1.4kg is currently retailing at $14.80.
He added that prices have increased by about 10 per cent to 16 per cent.
Other chicken importers here such as Lee Say Poultry Industrial and Hup Heng Poultry Industries said they are expecting chickens to be delivered to retailers like supermarkets and wet markets only on Friday morning.
Supermarkets like Sheng Siong also confirmed that fresh broiler chickens - larger chickens that make up the bulk of what Singapore typically imports from Malaysia - will be available from Friday morning.
Chilled chicken will be available from as soon as Friday across Giant, Cold Storage and CS Fresh stores, said a spokesman for DFI Retail Group.
Chilled chicken is unprocessed and is stored and transported at temperatures of between 4 deg C and 7 deg C. No part of the chicken has been frozen.
The Straits Times has also contacted other supermarkets and retailers.
Chicken exports have been banned by Malaysia since June 1, following a local supply shortage. At the time, about a third of Singapore's chicken came from Malaysia.
The Malaysian authorities confirmed on Sunday that the chicken export ban would be lifted on Tuesday.
On Monday, Malaysia's Agriculture and Food Industries Minister Ronald Kiandee said that while the pre-ban limit was 3.6 million chickens a month, only half, or 1.8 million chickens, will be allowed for export upon the easing of restrictions.
He added that restrictions will be further eased periodically.
Mr Ma Chin Chew, chief executive of Hup Heng Poultry Industries, which mainly supplies wet markets with chickens, said it is expecting a fraction of the usual volume of chickens to come in this week, and for the foreseeable future.
"Compared with pre-ban, we're getting only 30 per cent of the volume... some of the other companies are getting more," he said.
"Although we're happy that chickens are coming back, I am half-half about it because the volume is too small... I can't fulfil everyone's orders.
"It's a dilemma for us... We're going to upset customers and a lot of people may not understand our constraints."
As for when chicken imports from Malaysia will go back to pre-ban levels, he said there is no certainty, especially given that Malaysia's Parliament was dissolved on Monday.
"We don't know when (the imports) are going to resume fully, and the farmers are not going to breed more... it's been quite difficult," he said.
- Additional reporting by Wallace Woon
