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Chicken vendors get more compensation

Chicken vendors who voluntarily give up their licences have been offered up to $500,000 in compensation - a 40 per cent increase over the original offer spurned by legislators and traders last month.

A $326 million plan has replaced the $239 million plan unveiled last month after negotiations with traders and legislators who said the original plan as inadequate.

The government hopes to have the plan approved in a Finance Committee meeting on Friday.

Revisions to the scheme - aimed at shutting many of the 814 poultry stalls to reduce the risk of bird flu - also include a more attractive loan programme to encourage stall holders to renovate their premises even if they refuse to give up their licences, as well as increased compensation for the retraining of those who are rendered unemployed.

Holders of stalls up to 15 square metres in size will receive about $173,000 upon surrendering their licences, while those with premises of more than 45 square metres will receive $503,000. The majority of stalls are between 15 to 25 square metres and entitled to $252,000.

A senior official of the Health, Welfare and Food Bureau said the government had the difficult task of balancing the interests of poultry vendors with those of other taxpayers in determining the fairest level of compensation.

'We feel we have balanced correctly and hope it will be acceptable to the traders and the legislators,' he said.

Vendors are entitled to up to $50,000 or 60 per cent of the cost of renovating their stalls to make them adhere to new hygiene rules if they refuse to give up their licences. Workers made redundant will be entitled to up to $8,000 in stipends to undergo eight weeks of retraining - up from $6,000 for six weeks in the original proposal.

Given that the principle mode of transmitting bird flu from poultry to humans was through contact with live poultry, minimising contact between the two would be the most effective preventative measure, the official said.

Meanwhile, 30,000 day-old chicks arrived at 12 local farms yesterday from three mainland farms.

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