Poultry farmers ready to export
Sunday, 3 January 2010
FE Report
Poultry farmers Wednesday said Bangladesh might resume poultry bird export, as there has been no outbreak of the deadly bird flu infection in the country last year.
Local poultry birds used to be exported to Nepal and the Middle Eastern countries.
Aftab Poultry Ltd, Kazi Farms and Paragon Poultry used to dominate the poultry bird export market.
"We are requesting our buyers to resume poultry bird import as no outbreak of bird flu has been recorded in the past one year," said Md Moshior Rahman, managing director of Paragon Poultry.
Local farms stopped export of birds soon after the outbreak of Avian Influenza in early 2007.
Bangladesh started exporting poultry birds in 2004.
The flu intensifies during winter seasons but local farms have not yet traced the H5N1 strain in their poultry birds.
Suniti Kumar Gayan, a director of Livestock Directorate said: "No farm has been affected in 2009, as the government and farmers had taken adequate precautionary measures during the outbreak."
Syed Abu Siddique, a farmer said: "Farms can declare their poultry bird-flu free and resume export."
Mr Siddique, a former general secretary of Bangladesh Poultry Farms Association, said overseas buyers prefer Bangladesh poultry birds mainly because of its cheap price.
"We exported several million dollars worth of poultry birds in three years and the growth rate reached double digits during the last year," he claimed.
Mr Moshior said: "Big farms are now desperately scouting for export markets, as the price of the poultry birds has dropped sharply due to supply surfeit."
Currently, farmers sell birds at Tk 70 each kilogrammes, which farmers said was much below the production cost.
Bird flu was first detected in March in 2007.
Over 1.5 million birds were culled from March 2007 to December 2008 at commercial farms across the country.
Besides, 116,000 birds were culled during the period at homestead farms, statistics show.
Bangladesh has over 100,000 poultry farms, which produce around 6.5 million birds each week.
Poultry farmers Wednesday said Bangladesh might resume poultry bird export, as there has been no outbreak of the deadly bird flu infection in the country last year.
Local poultry birds used to be exported to Nepal and the Middle Eastern countries.
Aftab Poultry Ltd, Kazi Farms and Paragon Poultry used to dominate the poultry bird export market.
"We are requesting our buyers to resume poultry bird import as no outbreak of bird flu has been recorded in the past one year," said Md Moshior Rahman, managing director of Paragon Poultry.
Local farms stopped export of birds soon after the outbreak of Avian Influenza in early 2007.
Bangladesh started exporting poultry birds in 2004.
The flu intensifies during winter seasons but local farms have not yet traced the H5N1 strain in their poultry birds.
Suniti Kumar Gayan, a director of Livestock Directorate said: "No farm has been affected in 2009, as the government and farmers had taken adequate precautionary measures during the outbreak."
Syed Abu Siddique, a farmer said: "Farms can declare their poultry bird-flu free and resume export."
Mr Siddique, a former general secretary of Bangladesh Poultry Farms Association, said overseas buyers prefer Bangladesh poultry birds mainly because of its cheap price.
"We exported several million dollars worth of poultry birds in three years and the growth rate reached double digits during the last year," he claimed.
Mr Moshior said: "Big farms are now desperately scouting for export markets, as the price of the poultry birds has dropped sharply due to supply surfeit."
Currently, farmers sell birds at Tk 70 each kilogrammes, which farmers said was much below the production cost.
Bird flu was first detected in March in 2007.
Over 1.5 million birds were culled from March 2007 to December 2008 at commercial farms across the country.
Besides, 116,000 birds were culled during the period at homestead farms, statistics show.
Bangladesh has over 100,000 poultry farms, which produce around 6.5 million birds each week.