January 11, 2007

China's Henan day-old chicks popular at home and abroad

The popularity of Henan's Changge day-old chicks can be evidenced by the fact that the entire stock was sold within half a day at more than US$2 each to foreign breeders.

The breeders come from Burma, Vietnam and other Southeast Asian countries.

Currently, the Xifan village in Changge makes one shipment of day-old chicks abroad every other day, thanks to the efforts of villager Zhang Juxing.

Zhang was a day old chick trader in Beijing who returned to Xifan village to set up a incubating farm in 1999. Taking the cue from Zhang, incubating farms sprung up in more than a dozen villages. Now, the region's day-old chicks are sold to more than 20 provinces and the village has become the largest day-old chick market in the province and one of the top three chick incubating regions in the country.

In May last year, traders from South-east Asian countries began taking notice of day-old chicks from Changge. Since then, more than 200,000 day-old chicks have been shipped abroad.