September 28, 2010

Nepal's Hatchery Association to enhance broiler, chicken quality

Nepal's Hatchery Association is all set to improve the quality of both broilers and layers chicken production by modern standards.

Under the new scheme of things, the association is mulling over producing new breeds of chicks from the imported parent chicks as per the international standards. The association said both the hens and baby chickens will be regularly administered vaccines to maintain 'bio-security'.

Also, packaging and delivery of chickens to farmers, including labels containing detail information about the chicks will be introduced to ensure the quality standards.

As demands for chickens outstrip supply, hatcheries have been on the rush to make quick bucks by supplying inferior breeds of chicks without meeting required standards.

However, hatchery operators dismiss the accusations, claiming that they are fully committed to quality standards. "Hatchery industry, where hundreds of millions of rupees have been invested, can't produce inferior quality of chicks," said Ishwor Lama, president of the association.

However, he didn't rule out the penetration of the Nepali markets by inferior quality of chicks imported from India. "Some inferior variety would have sneaked into the poultry farms, prompting the farmers to complain of quality. Chicks produced in Nepal are of standard quality unlike those imported from India," Lama said.

According to the data made available by the association, imports of broiler parent chicks doubled by 322,000 heads during the fiscal year 2009/10 as against a year earlier. Similarly, hatchery entrepreneurs said the import of layers chicken has also shot up significantly.

The 82 hatcheries, associated with the association, produce to the tune of one million heads of broiler chicks and 20,000 heads of layers chicks every week.