August 11, 2005

Russian poultry farmers lose big money from bird flu

Russian poultry breeders have suffered between US$5 million to US$6 million in losses due to the bird flu, said Agrarian Market Trends Institute director Dmirty Rylko.

Bird flu has been officially confirmed in Russia's secondary poultry production areas such as Novosibirsk, Tyumen, Omsk Regions and Altai.

As such, the country's biggest poultry breeders association Rosptitssoyuz are no longer expecting a 20-percent growth by year-end, but a 5-10 percent decline instead. Funds originally meant for the expansion have now been used to fight the bird flu, Rosptitssoyuz added.

Factors for this pessimism stem from the fact that poultry could not be imported out of the quarantine areas and there is an apparent slowdown in poultry sales in affected and surrounding areas.

Investors are also no longer interested in the local poultry industry due to the higher risks involved.

Russia produces about 989 million tonnes of poultry yearly.