January 24, 2006

Poultry feed sales could fall by a quarter in France
 

The slide in poultry sales in France towards the end of last year could bring down prices of poultry feed by up to 25 percent, Jacques Poulet, spokesman for the French Animal Feed Producers Group told Reuters on Monday.

France is Europe's largest animal feed producer with an annual output of 22.3 million tonnes.

French poultry sales have been badly affected by bird flu with demand falling since October. It staged a recovery over Christmas but consumption dipped again as new cases of bird flu in Turkey emerged.

The fallout from the drop in poultry consumption last year took a few months to show in the animal feed industry, said Poulet.

A much steeper drop in sales is expected this time round than the 10 percent drop in December because chicken breeders have scaled down their operations and some have gone bankrupt, said Poulet.