KUALA LUMPUR, May 14 — Malaysian farmers are expected to miss planting later this year due to global fertiliser shortages, said Nurhisham Hussein, economic adviser to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim.
He told radio station BFM’s “The Breakfast Grille” in an interview aired yesterday that Malaysia has enough urea onshore and imports potash fertiliser from Australia, but is looking for potassium and ammonia fertilisers that are “a little short”.
Nurhisham, who is senior director of economy and finance at the Prime Minister’s Office, also revealed that 90 per cent of Malaysia’s fertiliser use goes to palm oil, with only 10 per cent used for food crops.
“The concern here is that because global fertilisers are short, it could have a downstream impact, further down the line. We know that, for example, in the US, in South America, even here in Malaysia, there are some farmers who can’t actually plant because they cannot get access to supply,” he said.
“That will hit us towards the end of the year. So that’s something we’re watching very carefully.”
As for Malaysia’s medicine supply, Nurhisham said there are roughly two months’ stock each at the retail, distributor, and manufacturing level, totalling about five to six months’ supply for major medicines.
Only 11 medication classes – mostly very low-volume medicines like anti-snake venom – are in a “critical state” of supply.
Malaysia has about one month’s supply of fast-moving medical devices and consumables like gloves, sutures, and face masks, said Nurhisham.
Nurhisham pointed out that “the clock hasn’t started ticking” for the six months it will take for oil supplies to normalise because the United States-Iran war still hasn’t ended.
“We’re talking about the end of the year or even into 2027 before we see a normalisation of oil supplies.”
Fuel supplies are just the first wave of impact, he warned, as the global energy crisis will have a downstream effect on petrochemical derivatives used to make many types of consumer goods.
Jorge Moreira da Silva – executive director of the United Nations Office for Project Services (UNOPS) and leader of a UN task force aimed at averting a looming humanitarian crisis – told international news wire AFP last Monday that 45 million people could face hunger and starvation if fertilisers aren’t soon allowed through the Strait of Hormuz.
Moreira da Silva also noted that fertiliser costs have faced a “massive increase”, even though food prices haven’t surged yet.
Agriculture and Food Security Minister Mohamad Sabu reportedly said yesterday that food prices in Malaysia will likely increase in the second half of the year due to rising costs of fertiliser, livestock feed, and logistics.
The government is particularly concerned about the rising cost of corn and soybean meal, the main ingredients of chicken feed, that are primarily imported from Brazil and Argentina.
