Chicken sellers cry foul over imports quota
Imports of live mainland chickens may be capped at 20,000 a day in future as market demand has fallen by a third with the increased risk of bird flu infection, the health chief said yesterday.
However, the poultry sector has accused the government of interfering with the market.
Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food York Chow Yat-ngok said the government would try to resume imports of live chickens as soon as no new cases of bird flu infections were reported in Guangdong. 'Since the risk of bird flu has increased, the demand for live chickens has dropped to about 40,000 a day, with 20,000 from local farms and 20,000 from the mainland. We will take these figures as a starting point to determine [the number of chickens to be imported],' Dr Chow said.
Steven Wong Wai-chuen, chairman of the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers Association, said sales of chickens had dropped from 60,000 a day to 40,000 last month.
Imports of live chickens from Guangdong to Hong Kong were banned for 21 days last week after confirmation of a fatal human infection of bird flu in Guangzhou. Dr Chow said the government would decide this week whether to extend the ban.
Tsui Ming-tuen, president of the Hong Kong Live Poultry Wholesalers' Association, said the sudden drop in market demands was largely because of unstable market prices due to a severe shortage of poultry supplies rather than the public fear of bird flu infection. 'The retail price has jumped ... from $22 per catty normally to $40 since the government announced the ban ... So people chose not to take chicken until the prices return to a normal level.
'In fact, live poultry has become 'negative equity' to the traders because the price is so high that they cannot sell off the stocks.'
Mr Tsui said that due to weak market demand, wholesale prices from local poultry farms had dropped from $23 a catty last week to $13 yesterday. Many chicken stalls had suffered big losses because they made orders with local farms at a higher price last week and their stock remained unsold, he said.
Mr Wong accused the government of interfering with the market, saying import quotas should be decided by the market.
He said the government should return poultry imports from mainland farms to 30,000 a day instead of cutting supplies.
