October 26, 2005

Belgium sees poultry sales fall amid bird flu fears

Despite that bird flu is not detected in Belgium, local poultry sales have already been hit by the public's panic over a potential disease outbreak. Sales of chicken products have dropped by 30-50 percent in the past two weeks, according to the country's Farmers Union spokesman Wouter Wytynck.

This is considered a disaster for the poultry industry, which previously faced by a dioxin scare in 1999 and bird flu issues in 2003.

Poultry farmers now only receive EUR0.63/kg, down from EUR0.80/kg two weeks ago.

Wouter Wytynck predicted that prices would fall further as "the premature panic reaction from the consumer has pushed the price for chicken under production prices".

He added that even if bird flu does not break through, the sector would suffer heavy losses.