SINGAPORE: Mohamad Zaidi, a chicken vendor, bought 150 chickens to feed his clients at Tekka Centre on Thursday (May 26), but only received 100.
The 39-year-old claimed that his 20-year Malaysian supplier failed to notify him of the scarcity.
As a result, Mr Zaidi, who solely sells chicken and provides home delivery, had to cancel on one of his customers.
“I called one of the customers and told him (we) couldn’t send because there weren’t enough,” he explained.
The supply issue arises ahead of Malaysia’s restriction on chicken exports beginning June 1 in order to assure adequate supply in the domestic market.
Singapore imports approximately 34% of its chicken from Malaysia, almost entirely as live birds, which are then butchered and chilled locally.
Chicken vendors who communicated with CNA reported a 20 to 70% scarcity.
Mr Chua Boon Leng, another chicken trader at Tekka Centre, said he bought 100 chickens and received only 30 for two days in a succession.
Another trader in Geylang Serai market, Mr Lim, said his fresh chicken was sold out by 9.30am and he continued to sell frozen chicken till he closed shop about midday.
He, too, had a deficit of 20 chickens, but this was out of the ordinary, he claimed.
“Typically, (the birds) never finish, 12 o’clock, 1 o’clock, still has balance to carry over to the next day,” he explained.