June 27, 2007

UK company says chicken prices may rise sharply due to high feed prices

UK poultry company Lloyd Maunder Ltd has said a wheat shortage and the consequent high prices has forced it to raise the prices of its chicken.

The Wouldand-based company produces 500,000 chickens a week.

As wheat prices have increased 40 percent since last year, the retail price of chicken would have to rise, the company said.

However, the company warned that the wheat shortage is global in scale and may have further implications for the poultry industry in the country.

Andrew Maunder, Lloyd Maunder's commercial director, said that chicken prices have been getting cheaper for the past decades and he hoped shoppers would understand if chicken prices are adjusted upwards now due to increased grain prices.

A rapidly growing world population, biofuels, droughts and bad harvests have led to the current wheat shortage, he explained.