Yemen poultry trade hit
YEMEN - Yemen's poultry industry is losing roughly $1 million a day due to the potentially deadly H5N1 avian flu, according to officials at the Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation, who say this figure could reach as high as $5 million if the problem goes unchecked.'Due to consumers' fears of the pandemic, losses to the poultry sector are estimated at $1 million per day,' Ghalib Al Eryani, director of the Animal Resources Department, said in remarks published in a news report.
Even though Yemen is officially free of the disease, many citizens have abstained from eating chicken or eggs due to frenzied reports of bird-flu epidemics elsewhere in the region.
Al Eryani, quoted by the IRIN news service, said his department had received numerous requests from poultry sellers for compensation for lost business.
While addressing the Consultative Council late last month, Minister of Health Abdulkareem Ras'e suggested that poultry owners be compensated with $1 per chicken culled in the event of the bird flu's appearance.
Source: tradearabia.com
11 May 2006
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