May 5, 2004

 

 

Japanese Poultry Industry Reeling From Bird Flu Outbreak
 

The outbreak of the highly contagious avian influenza at Asada Nosan's Funai Farm in Tanbacho, Kyoto Prefecture, has left a scar on the country's poultry industry.

 

The battered consumer confidence in the poultry industry might have been salvaged if Asada Nosan had reported promptly what turned out to be an outbreak of the disease.

 

The indictment of Hideaki Asada, president of Asada Nosan in Himeji, Hyogo Prefecture, on charges of violating the Domestic Animal Infectious Diseases Control Law, was a wake-up call to poultry producers and others in the food industry.

 

However, the farm's reluctance to report the outbreak could be attributed to the lack of government financial support for the poultry farmers, who had to halt their business because the outbreak.

 

Under the law, farms that are ordered to destroy chickens and feed should be compensated for their losses.

 

The central government faced strong pressure from Yamaguchi Prefecture, where bird flu broke out for the first time in the country in 79 years. Thus it established emergency measures on February 3 to cover part of the losses incurred by farms instructed not to ship eggs.

 

For losses resulting from a drop in the prices of eggs and poultry, as well as the increase in costs to feed the chickens they had to keep, the government also set measures to compensate farms and others in Kyoto, Osaka, Hyogo, Oita and Kumamoto prefectures on March 16.

The bird flu outbreak seriously hurt sales of chickens and eggs, especially in the Kansai region.

 

According to the Japan Chicken Association, which conducted a survey of 274 retailers, wholesalers and others in poultry-related business in March, sales of poultry in the nation fell by an estimated 20 percent from the previous year.

 

Furthermore, the nation's wholesale price of eggs per kilogram decreased to 133 yen in March, compared with 176 yen a year earlier.

 

Following the bird flu outbreak in Kyoto Prefecture, sales of poultry at Shiga Chicken Farm, located about 100 kilometers from Tanbacho, declined by half for the first two weeks. Sales recovered somewhat in April, but still remained at 10 percent less than the figure before the incident.

 

Yet farmers in Kansai are not the only ones seriously affected by the latest outbreak of avian flu. Overall, poultry farmers in the country are in dire financial conditions because of declining prices of chickens and eggs.

 

"Many poultry businesses in the country are on the verge of collapse," said Shimada of the Japan Poultry Association.