Indonesia Poultry & Egg Market - INDONESIA - Broiler prices down from weakened demand; egg prices generally stable (week ended Nov 19, 2005).

The Jakarta administration has increased the minimum wage of workers to Rp 819,100 (about US$81) for 2006, an increase of 15 percent from the current Rp 711,843.

The increase, however, is much lower than the Rp 1,203,015 demanded by labour unions. The minimum wage only applies to workers who have worked for less than a year and will be effective Jan 1, 2006.

"We can understand that the increase is due to ballooning living costs of workers. The most important thing is how both parties--employers as well as workers--can work together to weather rising operational and production costs so that businesses survive the crisis," said Association of Indonesian Retailers' (Aperindo) secretary general Handaka Santosa.

Some employers said that the recent fuel price hikes have already increased production costs, especially of manufacturing industries in the city, by up to 15 percent.

Broiler

One broiler producer in Jakarta said that the production cost for each kilogramme of broiler has increased by 8 percent. However, with the rather high farm-gate live broiler prices in the past two weeks, producers have reaped a profit.

In Jakarta, broilers were traded at Rp 8,600/kg on Nov 19, up Rp 300 from the previous week's prices.

In Surabaya (east Java) and Semarang (central Java), broiler prices closed at Rp 7,200/kg and Rp 7,000/kg respectively. According to some traders, the prices fell due to weakened demand.

In Sumatra, except in Pekanbaru, broiler prices closed lower from the previous week's prices. In Medan (north Sumatra), the price also fell to Rp 9,300/kg on Nov 18, down Rp 700 from the previous week.

A similar situation was also seen in Jambi and Palembang (south Sumatra), where broilers were traded at Rp 8,500/kg and Rp 7,800/kg respectively as of Nov 18.

Egg

For the egg commodity, some producing areas such as Blitar (east Java) and Medan (north Sumatra), saw slight increases in prices. In Blitar, eggs were traded at Rp 6,700-Rp 7,000/kg as of Nov 18, up from Rp 6,200/kg the previous week.

In Palembang (south Sumatra), the egg price was stable at Rp 6,800/kg, the same price as the previous week's, while in Medan, eggs were traded at Rp 8,300/kg.

In Jakarta, eggs were also traded at the same price as the previous week's, at Rp 7,600/kg, although some traders said that egg prices are showing signs of falling incrementally.

Source: eFeedLink - 21st November 2005