February 13, 2004

 

 

US$10 Million Aid Package for Vietnam Poultry Industry

 

The World Bank announced on Friday that it is prepared to give Vietnam a US$10 million loan to help its poultry industry, which has been ravaged by bird flu.

 

Klaus Rohland, World Bank country director in Vietnam, said he is in discussions with government officials and is hoping to make the aid available as early as May.

 

"We'd be focused on the economic recovery phase," he said. "The short-term emergency needs are being covered by other U.N. agencies."

 

The bird flu sweeping through Asia has devastated poultry flocks and killed at least 19 people, 14 of them in Vietnam and five in Thailand.

 

More than 34 million of Vietnam's 250 million poultry stock have already died or been culled as officials tried to keep the epidemic from spreading further.

 

"The bird flu ... has driven Vietnam's poultry industry to a standstill and cost the country losses of some US$170 million so far," said Nguyen Dang Vang, director of the Poultry and Livestock Breeding Institute in Hanoi.

 

According to the institute's estimates, Vietnam is losing US$4 million a day in costs associated with compensation and culling. The country's domestic poultry industry is worth more than US$700 million, Vang said.

 

Vietnam's call for international assistance in containing the disease has brought aid from China, the United States and the European Union.

 

The World Bank assistance would not go toward direct compensation of farmers, Rohland said. Instead, the money would be used to rehabilitate the sector.

 

"(The money) could be for loans for farmers to buy new chickens or government grants for farmers to buy chickens," he said.

 

The loan would also be used to strengthen the national veterinary system so Vietnam would be better prepared for future disease outbreaks, Rohland said.

 

The disease has been reported in 57 of the country's 64 provinces, but agriculture officials this week said they believe the epidemic is slowing down. No new provinces have reported outbreaks since Monday.

 

Vietnam has been struggling to keep the disease in check, but has been hampered by limited resources and manpower. Most of the people raising poultry in Vietnam are small farmers, and isolation zones have not proved an effective containment measure.

 

The government has offered to pay farmers 5,000 dong ($1=VND15,680) compensation a slaughtered chicken, plus costs associated with culling. However, many farmers balked at destroying their chickens, complaining that the compensation was inadequate compared with a bird's market value of VND30,000 to VND50,000.

 

Earlier this week, in a bid to ease the economic toll, the government reversed a decision requiring the culling of all birds within a three-kilometer radius of an infected area.

 

Vietnam has banned the transportation and sale of poultry nationwide, but the government is considering allowing sales of poultry products from unaffected areas.

 

Dozens of scientists from the ministries of agriculture, health, science and technology were expected to participate in a chicken feast later Friday at the institute to boost poultry consumption, Vang said.

 

"We want to show the public that it's safe to eat chicken meat once the chickens go from unaffected areas and go through animal quarantine," he said.