The oversupply of poultry has led to high costs and low selling prices, causing losses for breeders nationwide, especially in Dong Nai Province, the leading area for battery chicken production.
The oversupply of poultry has led to high costs and low selling prices, causing losses for breeders nationwide, especially in Dong Nai Province, the leading area for battery chicken production.
Nguyen Kim Doan, vice chairman of Dong Nai Livestock Association, said that breeders had mistakenly thought that consumers would pay more for poultry because of the outbreak of African Swine Fever (ASF) among pigs.
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| Breeders are suffering losses as the overrsupply of poultry has led to low selling prices. Photo from nld.com.vn |
In fact, the number of customers buying poultry has been much lower than chicken sales.
Do Van Thong from the province’s Long Khanh City in the past raised 40,000 battery chickens, but he doubled the quantity after the outbreak of ASF.
Thong sold a kilo of live chicken for only VND14,000 (US$0.6) per kg but breeding costs were up to VND26,000 ($1.1). After deducting expenses, he lost nearly VND1 billion ($43,100).
Doan said the current number of chickens and ducks in Dong Nai is 26 million, an increase of 4 million. For every 1,000 battery chickens sold, a breeder suffers a loss of VND15-20 million ($646-862 million).
According to the Vietnam Poultry Association, oversupply is also caused by the way the General Statistics Office counts chicken breeding rotations. The office’s breeding rotation is only 1.5 flocks per year.
However, the process to raise battery chickens often lasts between 42-60 days, so the rotation is up to 3-6 flocks per year.
The association estimated that the country has 317 million battery chickens and yearly productivity of up to 1.2 billion.
(Source:VNS)
