April 9, 2004

Vietnam Offers Bird Flu Insurance To Poultry Consumers
 

The Petrolimex Joint Stock Insurance Company (PJICO) has offered insurance against H5N1 virus infection to those consumers who eat chicken supplied by the Thanh Binh Animal Feed and Husbandry Company in southern Dong Nai province.

Under a deal signed recently by PJICO and the Thanh Binh company, these consumers will be entitled to 100 million VND payout if they become a fatal victim of H5N1 virus.

PJICO will be responsible for paying hospital charges totalling up to 100 million VND maximum for those consumers who have to be hospitalised because of H5N1 virus.

In addition, PJICO will provide insurance for those farming households who raise chickens under contracts with the Thanh Binh company.

Accordingly, the insurer will compensate these chicken breeders for losses caused by the bird flu if they have strictly followed the breeding guidelines given by the Thanh Binh company.

Director of the PJICO Dong Nai branch Nguyen Xuan Hoang said, apart from providing insurance against the bird flu, PJICO will, in the long term, offer insurances for livestocks for example: cows, buffaloes, pigs, and plants like sugarcanes, cashewnut plants and rubber trees.