September 10, 2014

Myanmar farmers oppose chicken imports

Myanmar's broiler producers are asking the government to restrict chicken imports to protect the local poultry industry, which they claim has started moving toward modernisation.

Cheap chicken imports undercut local producers, hurting them in the end and the people they employ, said U KyawHtin, chairman of the Mandalay Region Poultry and Egg Production and Trading Association.

"Our country can't manufacture cars or airplanes, but we can do poultry very well and improve it step-by-step," he added.

Other countries, U KyawHtin said, have certain industries that they nurture and protect. For Myanmar, this should be the industry to protect, he pointed out, as "it is only beginning to build modern industrial farms."

He revealed that one factory whose goal is to process 12,000 frozen chickens a day is scheduled to start operation next year.

More factories of this kind are planned in Yangon and Mandalay, U KyawHtinadded.

Industry leaders believe that integration and large-scale production could help close the huge gap between prices in the farm and those in the market.

The current farm price of live chicken is 1,875 Myanmar kyat (US$1.93) a kilogramme. In the market, the price is twice as much at K3,750 or US$3.86 per kg.

If frozen poultry is allowed to enter Myanmar from other countries, local chicken prices could plunge, U KyawHtin said.  While it would be a boon to Myanmar consumers in the short term, it could spell the end of the local poultry industry, leaving thousands of farm workers jobless.

An official of the Mandalay poultry association, U Nay Thurain, disclosed that a Myanmar company had been seeking government permission to import 30 tonnes of chicken at only US$200 a tonne.

"This price is totally unreasonable. It is simply meant to destroy the market," U Nay Thurain said.

UHlaHlaThein, deputy chairman of the Myanmar Livestock Federation, said imports of foreign chicken had been allowed purportedly because the countrycan't produce enough quality chicken, pork andbeef.

"I don't accept this reason, as far as chicken is concerned" he said. "We don't need imports, we have enough chicken."

According to U HlaHlaThein, local chicken production jumped by a record 20% in 2013 after growing at only 5% a year before that. This year, the federation expects a much higher growth rate.