May 19, 2004
China's Poultry Market Seen to Peak in July
An eFeedLink Exclusive Report
In spite of the setback inflicted on China's poultry production industry brought about by the bird flu outbreak early this year, certain livestock & animal husbandry industry experts, government officials and poultry farmers remain positive about the country's poultry farming business. They have foreseen a rise in China's egg and poultry prices in the aftermath of the bird flu outbreak.
Their opinion is that if farmers have grabbed the opportunity to gear towards investment in poultry production, the current and near-term shortage of egg supply due to the bird flu outbreak will no longer be a threat. On the other hand, farmers would have reaped some good profits through poultry and egg production.
An experienced Chinese poultry farmer recently shared his experience on seizing the golden opportunity to make investment in poultry production. He bought in 10 thousand day-old-chick broilers one month before the bird flu outbreak was brought under control. When the bird flu outbreak is under control and these broilers are ready to be sold, chicken prices have already shot up to a high of RMB7.40/kg.
With the 10 thousand broilers ready for sales, the farmer is able to reap a profit of over RMB50,000 in total. In his view, the occurrence of the bird flu outbreak is a double-edged sword-it was a calamity of sort and has also presented a golden opportunity to the poultry production industry-depending on how the poultry farming community has perceived and handle the situation.
Market analysts foresee that prices of eggs and poultry products in China will reach their peaks in July. The experts suggest that if poultry product-related enterprises and poultry farmers start taking action now by investing in poultry production and taking preventive measures against the spread of animal diseases, as well as employing scientific methods in poultry farming, they will still be able to make good gains from their investment in poultry production.
