November 20, 2007

Gulf States ban Saudi's poultry exports
 

Kuwait and United Arab Emirates banned poultry products from Saudi after bird flu has been reported.

Riza Al-Naghmoush, a poultry farmer in Saudi's Eastern Province, said that the ban will cause huge losses to Saudi farmers and exporters, especially if it stays for a long period.

After Kuwait and United Arab Emirates announced the ban, Manama is expected to follow.

Meanwhile, Sultan Al-Fohaid, director of customs at the Al-Khafji border, said on Saturday that trucks carrying Saudi poultry were not refused entry into Kuwait.

Al-Fohaid said that his office did not receive official statement about the ban from Kuwaiti officials.

Saudi Arabia exports 10,000 tonnes of poultry products to the UAE and Yemen every year.

Topping the poultry producers in the Gulf and Arab region, farmers in the Kingdom sold 525,000 tonnes of broiler chickens worth US$11.2 billion to domestic and foreign markets last year.

More than 480,000 tonnes of poultry products, accounting for 75 percent of the country's requirement, are locally produced. The remaining 320,000 tonnes are imported from Brazil, France, America and China.