China Broiler Market Weekly - CHINA - In this weeks China Broiler Market Weekly, eFeedLink report that broiler prices in southern China recovered from the previous week's low. Prices remained sluggish in the other regions.

Market analysis

Health officials from Hong Kong and Macau have conducted investigations in Guangdong province and confirmed the absence of bird flu in poultry. Guangdong authorities had also taken precautionary measures against the virus after a case of human bird flu fatality in the provincial capital Guangzhou.

Except for Guangzhou, supplies of live birds from other regions of Guangdong to Hong Kong and Macau had resumed.

Broiler demand had also picked up in Guangdong and Guangxi in the run up to the Qingming Festival (a Chinese tomb-cleaning festival which falls on April 5). This, together with the smaller-than-expected interruption in live chicken exports to Hong Kong and Macau, had enabled broiler prices in the two regions to pick up from the previous week's lower prices.

Broiler prices in Jiangsu province declined more significantly compared with the smaller price movements in the other northern regions. Sluggish consumption there also led frozen chicken meat inventories to rise.

In Shandong, Liaoning and Henan provinces, prices were stable only on limited supplies. Meanwhile, occasional reports of bird flu in the media had continued to affect broiler consumption.

Significant temperature fluctuation in the north during the past week also fuel concerns that bird flu outbreaks may occur again in China and had also hampered cross-province broiler deliveries.

Market forecast

Broiler prices in Guangdong and Guangxi may make more gains in the week ahead but those in the other regions are likely to remain sluggish.

Source: eFeedLink - 16th March 2006