April 26, 2006

Hong Kong resumes day-old chick imports from China
 

Hong Kong will resume the import of day-old chicks from Chinese mainland starting Friday (Apr 28), but will keep the import quota of 20,000 live chickens a day unchanged.

The supply of day-old chicks from neighbouring Guangdong Province to Hong Kong would be resumed, a spokesman for Hong Kong Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said Tuesday.

Hong Kong suspended chicken imports from the mainland on Mar 5, when a case of human infection of the bird flu virus was reported in the southern province of Guangdong.

The ban on live chicken imports was lifted three weeks later, but the ban on day-old chicken imports was not and daily imports of live chicken have been kept at 20,000 chickens a day.

The government has refused to budge from its import caps despite protests from the local poultry industry to allow more imports.

The government also decided to freeze the rental of stalls in a poultry market and planned to refund tenants who had paid up.