International Egg and Poultry Review - By the USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - This is a weekly report looking at international developments concerning the poultry industry, this week looking at the Poultry Situation in North Korea.

Poultry Situation in North Korea

North Korea was formally established in 1948 when the Korean peninsula was divided into two: the Republic of Korea (South) and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North). North Korea shares borders with China, South Korea, and Russia, and is one of the world’s most isolated and poorest economies.

Mountain ranges cover 80 percent of the land and 18 percent of the land is arable. Farming is concentrated in the flatlands on the west coast. Poultry is raised near Pyongyang and in North Pyngan and South Hwanghae provinces. North Korea has grown from a predominately agricultural society in 1946 to an industrial one due to rich mineral resources and hydropower. The labor force is now 36 percent agricultural and 64 percent nonagricultural.

North Korea has focused on developing a modern poultry industry as a main source of animal protein and a potential export product to bring in hard currency. The armed forces have been used for much of the farm construction. In December 2001, the state created a special state agency in charge of breeding chickens and ducks. Live inventories grew from nine million in 1997 to an estimated 26 million in 2004.

A South Korean firm was about to start importing 40 MT of chicken per week, for a total of 2,000 MT. It would have been the first time in 50 years that South Korea had imported poultry from North Korea. Early in March a South Korean news agency reported that avian influenza had broken out in Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. The imports were put on hold. China, Japan and Hong Kong also suspended poultry imports from North Korea.

On March 27, North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency announced that at least three of the country’s poultry farms had outbreaks of avian influenza, including the Hadang chicken farm, one of Pyongyang’s largest. Soldiers buried and burned hundreds of thousands of chickens to prevent the disease from spreading and troops are quarantining the areas. South Korea and China have taken action to prevent the disease from spreading over the border. Jilin province borders North Korea and is China's largest poultry producer and export base.

An H7strain of avian influenza was identified in April 2005. H7 had previously been undetected in Asia. In 2003, the Netherlands had outbreaks of H7N7 and in 2004 Canada had cases of H7N3.
Source: UN Food and Agriculture Organization, CIA Factbook, U.S. Library of Congress, World Health Organization, news wires

Canadian Poultry Imports

Under the World Trade Agreement on Agriculture in 1995, Canada eliminated its quantitative import restrictions on poultry and eggs and imposed Tariff Rate Quotas on these products. After signing NAFTA, Canada announced it would apply the higher of either the WTO or the NAFTA formula level for poultry and poultry products. The current Canadian WTO access level for chicken is 39,844 MT. The NAFTA level for 2005 is 69,700 MT (based on 7.5 percent of the previous year’s chicken production in Canada.) Canada does not apply the TRQ to meat from spent fowl.

Canada has allowed imports of Brazilian chicken since it approved the poultry meat inspection system of Brazil in July 2002. In the first year, Canada only imported .089 metric tons of chicken. In 2003, imports grew to 2,981 MT, compared to 61,088 MT from the U.S.

In 2004, Canada experienced a shortage of chicken due to an outbreak of avian influenza in British Columbia, which resulted in the depopulation of 75-80 percent of the provincial flock. Under a special import provision, International Trade Canada (ITCan) can issue supplementary import permits if the department determines there is a shortage in Canada for a particular cut or type of chicken. Issuances of supplementary import permits allowed record level imports in 2004.

According to ITCan, Canadian demand for Brazilian chicken was for frozen wings and frozen boneless breasts for the foodservice industry.
Source: USDA/Foreign Agricultural Service

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Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 5th April 2005