October 16, 2006

Thailand's poultry farmers asked to halve their production

Thailand's Department of Livestock Development have asked chicken farmers to cut the production and slaughter of chickens to allow the clearing of accumulated stock to curb falling prices.

Director-General Yukol Limlamthong said chicken prices have fallen nearly 20 percent as a glut of chicken products is now flooding the market.

Farmers earlier cranked up production to meet demand for processed products meant for exports. 

However, as the export industry uses only some parts of the chicken, the rest had to be sold domestically, causing as much as 80,000 tonnes of chicken meat left in stock which may affect prices of fresh chicken through to the next year.

The director-general urged chicken farmers to reduce the number of chickens in their farms from 22-25 million/week to 13 million/week by the end of this year to facilitate the clearing of the stock.

So far, the response from chicken producers and farmers have been favourable, with production down to 16 million chickens in farms this week.

However, overall chicken meat exports are likely to reach 280,000 tonnes, close to last year's amount but less than the expected 350,000 tonnes, due to lingering worries in international markets over Thailand's bird flu problem.