October 18, 2010

Bahraini poultry farms on verge of closure

 

Bahrain's six biggest poultry farms could be forced out of business within 12 months, due to the absence of clear guidelines for regulating the sector, according to farm owners.

 

The lack of guidelines has resulted in major financial losses for farm owners, as well as a massive shortage of chicken, the owners said.

 

Owners also said that the Bahrain Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry officials were making decisions without properly studying the impact they will have on the market and the consequences for consumers.

 

Each of the six farms receives one-day-old chicks and hay from Bahrain's only authorised chicken meat distributor, the Delmon Poultry Company. They are not allowed to sell adult hens to anyone else in the market other than the company.

 

However, owners said that the way the chicks were being distributed lacked logic as agriculture officials simply divided them randomly among farms. The result has left them operating at between 40%-70% of their capacity, despite the fact the Delmon Poultry Company was willing to supply them more.

 

The six farms, all located in Hamala and Buri, are Al Safa, Wasmi, Khalil Khalaf, Al Ghadeer, Naseem, and Dhaif.

 

Jameel Ali Salman, the owner of Al Safa who represents the six farms on the ministry's poultry committee, said the body - set up to ensure the success of Bahrain's poultry industry - was not working.

 

Salman said consumers were also victims since there was not enough chicken in the market to meet demand, claiming the country had a shortfall of around 40%.

 

Owners also said the BD200,000 (US$530,430) annual budget allocated for vaccinations was being mismanaged with unnecessary medicines being purchased. For the past 10 years the six farms have been buying their own medicines and demanding that the budget was spent on other needs. They want chicken carcass incinerators to be bought and Near Infrared (NIR) Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy facilities and laboratories built.

 

Al Naseem owner Yousif Mahdi Hussain said the farms often get in trouble with the police whenever they burn dead or sick carcasses, which breached environment laws.

 

"Bahrain doesn't have an incinerator and we have no other way to get rid of dead hens other than burning them and this has brought us into trouble," Hussain said.

 

"Cheap and low quality chicken meat will be the only meat available in the market if we decide to shut down and that's something eminent according to the given situation," Hussain said.

 

Al Wasmi owner Mohammed Al Maskati said that Delmon has large supplies of chick stocks, but are unable to distribute them to the farms because of agricultural officials.

 

"The market needs chicken and the reason people are not allowed to buy more than three chickens from supermarkets is because the Delmon Poultry Company is short of supply and has to meet huge demand," Maskati said.

 

Industry and Commerce Ministry assistant under-secretary for domestic trade Hameed Rahma said a chicken buying quota was in place to ensure that the subsidised goods met the demands of families.

 

"There is a ministerial decision that bans the sale of Delmon's products to hotels and restaurants because there is not enough chicken to meet regular family use," Rahma said. "A quota was introduced to ensure that more chicken meat went to more homes, considering that supply doesn't meet demand," he said.

 

Owners called for the ministry committee be changed and made up of a representative from the Municipalities and Agriculture Affairs Ministry, Industry and Commerce Ministry, Health Ministry, the Cabinet, Financial Audit Bureau, Delmon Poultry Company, Northern Municipal Council, and themselves.