January 30, 2007

Indonesia's chicken traders to protest against mass culling laws

Poultry farmers in Central Java are threatening huge protests in Jakarta if the government starts mass bird culls as it said it would do.

Poultry farmers say they already have difficulty selling chickens and thousands of breeders and traders were ready to rally in Jakarta against the policy.

Bird flu has caused most farmers to suffer losses of Rp 50,000 (US$5.26) each day, with wholesalers suffering forty times as much. Some poultry breeders are now sending less than half the usual shipment of chickens to Jakarta each day, chicken farmers said.

The price of live chickens had also fallen more than 25 percent, farmers said.

The media's coverage of the outbreak as it has caused chicken consumption to plummet, farmers said.

Poultry farmers are urging the government to spare a thought for them because if all the chickens were wiped out to prevent the disease, there would be no way for them to make a living.

Farmers protested in Yogyakarta late last week against plans to pass a law allowing mass culls of infected or at-risk poultry.