November 30, 2006

Egyptian poultry output recovering

Egyptian poultry production has recovered to 1.7 million birds a day after hitting a low of 500,000 a day during the peak of a bird flu epidemic earlier this year.

However this is still some way from the 2 million birds a day before the virus hit in February, a Cabinet report on the food situation in the country said.

Although bird flu is still occurring in isolated pockets, a mass vaccination campaign and better control measures appeared to have limited the impact.

Egypt would also extend the exemption of customs duty on frozen meat and fish, introduced after bird flu created a shortage of animal protein. It had previously set a high tariff to protect the market.

The government would also set aside extra funds to finance wheat imports which are now at higher prices. The country is one fo the world's biggest wheat importers.