Many chicken farms are on the verge of bankruptcy given heavy losses and are finding it difficult to resume farming as chicken prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks.
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Many chicken farms are on the verge of bankruptcy given heavy losses and are finding it difficult to resume farming as chicken prices have fallen sharply in recent weeks.
Mr. Le Van Dinh, a chicken farmer in Tan Phu district in Dong Nai, said this was the first time chicken prices had taken such a sharp nosedive.
Chicken prices set by poultry farming areas at present are still not enough for offsetting production costs. The price of color fur chickens has tumbled to only VND39,000 a kilo, dipping over VND10,000 against earlier this year. Similarly, the price of industrial chickens has also stayed low in the market, at a mere VND19,500 a kilo, shrinking more than 50% versus the start of the year.
With such huge losses, Dinh has had no other choice but to sell his chickens on the cheap to reduce feed expenses in the context that chicken prices are slipping while animal feed prices remain high. The gap between slackened chicken demand and oversupply has led to a strong decline in chicken prices as seen at present.
At this time in previous years, many farms were also vulnerable to the bird flu epidemic but weakened demand as recorded this year is unprecedented, Dinh noted. Recent information on H5N1 and H7N9 bird flu has made consumers shy away from chicken meat consumption, he said, adding local farmers are incurring a loss of up to over VND10,000 per kilo with the current selling prices.
Southeastern provinces are home to as much as 15,000 chicken farming areas with one farm worth VND2 billion. Farmers in these localities are estimated to have invested more than VND3 trillion in poultry farming but they have still been unable to find outlets for around one million chickens weighing from 3.5 kilos to 4 kilos each.
(Source: SGT)
