March 17, 2011

Severe power cuts bring heavy losses to Vietnam poultry farmers

A number of Vietnam's animal raisers in the southern province of Dong Nai have stated protests of suffering heavily losses from severe power failures, local news reported Wednesday (Mar 17).

Nguyen Tri Vien in Trang Bom district's Hung Thinh commune said that the sudden power cut caused temperature increase in his chicken farm and killed 19,000 out of total 33,000 chickens. Vien lost VND1 billion (US$47,881.25) from the incident.

The local electricity provider did not inform Vien in advance about the power cut, so he couldn't react on time to protect his fowl herd.

Vien said this is not the first time he suffered from unexpected power cutting. Earlier, his flock of 3,000 chickens was killed from lack of oxygen caused by sudden power cut.

Lam Thanh Duc in Xuan Loc district said he has to pay additionally VND3 million (US$143.64) each day for running his generator to protect his chicken farm when local electricity was cut.

The electricity cut causes difficulties to animal breeding farms in Dong Nai in addition to price increase of animal feed.

Dong Nai has 445 farms with 7.4 million chickens. Electricity cut will increase production costs by VND1 billion (US$47,881.25) daily.