Poultry Industry Worried About Imported Chicken
SOUTH KOREA - The nation’s poultry industry Sunday raised concerns over a flood of imported chickens from the United States and Brazil, which will hit the local market as early as June.Brazil and the U.S. are the world’s biggest and second biggest chicken exporters as of 2004. U.S. chicken imports had been banned since February 2004 when avian flu was found on a farm in central Delaware, while the Brazilian chicken imports have been put on hold due to the country’s complicated quarantine procedures.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries last week announced it will allow the resumption of U.S. beef imports and Brazilian chicken imports in June.
``U.S. and Brazilian chickens are expected to sweep the market rapidly as those imported chickens are much cheaper than Korean ones,’’ an official from the Korea Poultry Industry (KPI) said.
For instance, the price of an imported Brazilian chicken is reportedly three times cheaper than a Korean one.
``We are worried cheap chicken imports might pull the product price down below production cost,’’ he said.
Source: TheKoreanTimes
6 June 2005
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