November 27, 2007

British poultry "dying" from soaring feed prices

British Poultry Council chairman Ted Wright expressed his concerns regarding a huge threat to the future of the British poultry industry.

While the outbreak of Avian Influenza in Suffolk has been making all the headlines, a potentially much greater threat to the future of the British poultry industry has quietly been unfolding, he said in a letter issued to the UK newspaper The Times. 

He said the industry is threatened by the "recent dramatic increase in feed prices, and the impact which that has had on the viability of all types of poultry production, but of chickens in particular."

According to Wright, feed and day-old chick costs account for approximately 82 percent of the cost of growing a broiler. The recent 30 percent hike in poultry feed prices has increased production costs by 25 percent overall. Consequently, chicken prices need to rise by at least 8 pounds per 1 kilogramme to cover the increase in feed costs.

The choice facing the retailers' amounts in allowing a modest price rise now, or doing nothing and letting a real shortage develop, as producers give up in the face of overwhelming losses, he said.

Wright reveals that "one of the country's largest producers of broiler chickens will get rid of over 500,000 young birds in the next 10 days because no one can afford to rear them".  He added that it should serve as a "stark warning of what will happen if retailers ignore the economic realities of chicken production".