March 18, 2004

 

 

Vietnamese Poultry Breeders Hit By High Chick Prices

 

Poultry farmers in Vietnam having grappled with the devastating effects of the recent bird flu outbreak now have to contend with high price of chicks as they attempt to restock.

 

Department of Agriculture director Le Hung Quoc said he had asked the state-run Poultry Association to control prices.

 

"Relevant agencies need to regulate both the price and quality of poultry," Quoc added.

 

Poultry suppliers said that regardless of government control, prices would not be as low as they were prior to the outbreak.

 

Nguyen Dang Vang, director of the National Institute for Livestock Breeding warned poultry suppliers should not raise prices too high because farmers would be forced to buy chicks from disreputable breeders in areas still affected by the virus.

 

At present, the institute maintains 12 poultry supply centres. The number of chickens produced, however, has dropped from 700,000 to 444,000 per month since the epidemic.

 

Since the outbreak the centres have spent VND1.5 billion a week on keeping government poultry stocks disease free.

 

Chicks bred at institute centres now sell at VND4,000 a bird compared to the pre-epidemic price of VND2,800.

 

Vang said the institute could only meet 20 per cent of domestic demand. He hopes the institute can expand the number of birds to 770,000 in the near future, meeting 40 per cent of the country's demand.

 

In an effort to prevent a poultry shortage and keep prices down, Quoc suggested the state implement a fixed price system, develop a long-term breeding programme and import poultry from flu-free countries.

 

Quoc said the difficulty in regulating poultry prices in Vietnam because 70 to 80 per cent of all birds still come from small-scale farming households.

 

Officials culled around 38 million birds in 57 of Vietnam's 64 provinces and cities. The epidemic cost Vietnam about US$190 million.