The shortage of chickens in Singapore, which occurred after Malaysia stopped exporting in June, has taken its toll on one Telok Blangah Market hawker, who will be ending his business.
“My favorite chicken rice and porridge stall is closing on the 27th. The price of chicken is too high to survive,” wrote one netizen on the Hawkers United – Dabao 2020 Facebook page.
The stall in question is called 和記海南鸡飯 and is located at 79-82 Telok Blangah Food Center.
The owner of the stall, Mr Liu, told Shin Min Daily News that after Malaysia, which used to supply one-third of Singapore’s chicken needs, stopped exporting chicken, he began to use fresh kampung chickens in his dishes.
But kampung chicken comes at a whopping $20 each.
Spending more on the chicken resulted in losses of $3,000 per month, Mr Liu added, which has been unsustainable for him.
He has therefore chosen to close his business starting this Saturday, Aug 27.
The hawker, 58, has run his Telok Blangah Market stall since 2014 and has only used fresh chicken for his dishes.
And while before Malaysia stopped importing chicken to Singapore, “chicken would sell for about $5 per kilo with each chicken weighing between 1.8kg and 2kg, therefore the cost of one chicken would usually not go beyond $12,” he told Shin Min Daily News, adding that “with kampung chicken, it costs about $20 for one weighing about 1.4kg to 1.8kg.”
As much as he did not want to raise prices, he now has to charge $4 and $5 for chicken rice and porridge dishes, depending on their size, with a whole chicken now priced at $32, when it used to be $28.
Before, his prices started at $3.50.
“The cost has gone up so I have to raise prices, but I don’t dare to increase prices by too much because it’ll be hard to sell,” he told the Chinese daily.
After Malaysia stopped importing chicken to Singapore, his stall sells only half of the number of chickens that it used to.
And while he tried using frozen chicken for his dishes, the quality was not the same.
When he announced that he was closing his stall, business picked up as regular customers have been coming every day.
But because he has been struggling to meet the $2000 monthly for rent and other fees, he will close shop for now and help out at a friend’s hawker stall to earn his keep. /TISG
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