5 unexpected shortages that gave Malaysians pening kepala in 2022

Fortunately for us, Malaysia is blessed with an abundance of resources, most notably palm oil, timber, and petroleum, among other things. With that being said, there are a number of other crucial things that we lack. To overcome this, we often reach out to our international allies using the power of good ol’ commerce.

But in recent times, there have been some shortages that other countries simply could not help us with. Making matters worse, of course, is the Russia-Ukraine war which has directly or indirectly caused some of these shortages. And we’ll admit, not having some of these things really hurt.

So we compiled a list of things that, at some point or another, were in short supply for Malaysians in 2022. First on the list, is something that Malaysians arguably cannot live without, and that is…

1) Chicken and Eggs

We’ll be honest, like countless philosophers before us, we found ourselves asking which point to put first: the chicken or the egg. But since we couldn’t decide, we just decided to combine the two into one.

Eggs in particular are of massive importance to Malaysians. It’s hard to think of any popular Malaysian snack that does not contain eggs, whether it’s nasi lemak, maggi goreng, crispy ayam goreng, roti telur; heck, we even eat our burgers wrapped in eggs. It’s no wonder that we’re one of the largest consumers of eggs in the world.

So imagine the shock and horror when we heard that the price of chickens and eggs had gone up, with sellers selling chickens above the government ceiling price of RM8.90 per kg. The situation got so bad that we even had to cut off chicken exports to our neighbor Singapore, cos who likes Singapore anyway y’know, we gotta look out for ourselves first. Luckily for them, the ban has since been partially lifted.

The price hikes of chicken and eggs worldwide are caused by the rising cost of chicken feed (70% increase), which in turn was caused by the Russia-Ukraine war. It’s not the end of the world, though; some solutions have been put forward to overcome the situation. For instance, Minister of Plantations and Commodities Zuraida Kamaruddin suggested using palm kernel waste as feed, while ganja-friendly Thailand has started feeding their chickens with cannabis, claiming it’s improved the quality of meat.

In any case, our Veterinary Services Department has said that our chicken shortage will be resolved in time for Hari Raya Haji next month, so hopefully we’ll still get to feast on rendang very soon.

2. Bread (and other wheat-based products)

Yes, we know, ‘thank god it’s not rice’. But things haven’t looked great for our second favorite carb after rice: bread. And yes, that includes roti canai.

And all this is thanks to the increase in the price of wheat, which was again caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict; that war really do be hitting us where it hurts. Things were made slightly worse after India halted its wheat exports to Malaysia, which we can’t really say much against since we did the same thing to Singapore. Karma sucks, doesn’t it?

Although it hasn’t hit us that bad yet, things might get much worse in the next three to six months, especially with the ongoing war in Ukraine and deteriorating weather conditions in the US. On the bright side, flour is a controlled item, so hopefully government subsidies continue when we need them to.

On the brighter side, it’s never too late to go carb-free.

3) Potatoes

Ah yes, the humble potato. This starchy tuber has brought so much joy to people, especially in the form of french fries, chips, and the legendary cheezy wedges. So, yeah, you can bet we lost our marbles when several of our favorite fast food restaurants began downsizing or removing their potato products.

However, it seems that this shortage in particular was caused more by the C-19 pandemic rather than the war. Both McDonald’s and KFC explained that the pandemic had disrupted the supply chain of potatoes, reportedly because there are less workers and ships to send the good stuff over.

Fortunately, yes, you can still get fries from your favorite fast food restaurants, so it isn’t that bad. For now.

4) Foreign labor

Haha, did you think this list was just limited to foodstuffs?

Ironically, Malaysia’s foreign workers, a segment of society that we once thought had too many members in KL, are now in dire need of reinforcements. To put a number on it, it’s estimated that Malaysia needs at least 1.2 million workers across various industries such as plantation, manufacturing, and construction:

“The situation is dire and very much like having to play a game of football against 11 men but only being allowed to field seven.” – Carl Bek-Nielsen, Chief Executive Director of United Plantations

‘But hey’, we hear you ask, ‘isn’t Malaysia supposed to be a really attractive destination for Bangladeshi and Indonesian workers?’ Well, yes, but there’s a problem: after lifting the C-19 ban on recruiting foreign workers, negotiations with Bangladesh and Indonesia broke down because according to them, Malaysia was playing naughty; Indonesia halted its plantation workers from going to Malaysia at the last minute as Malaysia supposedly ‘didn’t follow visa procedure’, while Bangladesh were upset that Malaysia was limiting its labor worker entry. The latter was enough to spark a protest in Bangladesh:

“We just wanted to drive home the point that limiting (recruitment) to just 25 of the 1,300 agencies is totally unfair and will lead to corrupt practices.” – Shameem Ahmed Chowdhury Noman, secretary-general of the Bangladesh Association of International Recruiting Agencies (Baira)

In any case, countries better send us some dudes fast, because major Malaysian companies have already lost billions in sales, and are even having to refuse orders from buyers. After all, there’s no point having all the resources in the world when you don’t have anyone to collect them.

5) Babies

Depending on your life philosophy, this may or may not be a bad thing.

But yes, Malaysia’s Chief Statistician Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin says that Malaysia is currently undergoing a ‘demographic transition’, which is, in short, a historical shift from high birth and death rates, to low ones. In other words, too many old people, too few babies:

“The number of people over 65 years in Malaysia is projected to triple from two million today to over six million by 2040.” – Datuk Vincent Lim, Concept, Innovation and Strategy (C.I.S.) Network Sdn Bhd president

Should we be worried though? Well, if the numbers are to be believed, yes. The reason is that a low or negative population growth, if not matched by an equal or greater increase in GDP per capita, could lead to an economic recession. Because logically speaking, no babies = no next generation of workers = less productivity = less $$$ = more stress for us.

“If these conditions become permanent, the country could find itself in a permanent recession.” – Datuk Seri Dr Mohd Uzir Mahidin, Chief Statistician

So in short, what our government is basically saying is: “go forth and multiply; close your eyes and think of Malaysia”. Not that they’d be the first to do so; Denmark, having charted a historically low birthrate years back, launched its ‘Do it for Denmark’ campaign encouraging more couples to bonk and have more children. We reckon that would be a bit tricky to pull off here though, since even hugs and kisses are prohibited in local films and dramas.

The situation is still under control (for the most part), but it really does need fixing

The saying goes that you don’t really appreciate something until it’s gone. But honestly, we’d never thought we’d say that about chicken. Sorry chicken, for taking you for granted.

We guess the takeaway (no pun intended???) here is that even things that are so normal in our daily lives could be gone in a blink of an eye. While it does seem like it isn’t the end of the world (just yet), it will probably take some time before balance can be restored. And we really hope that it is, because we’ll be in a really bad spot if it isn’t.

Until then, enjoy your chicken while you can.