Vietnam markets resume sales of virus-free poultry products
HA TAY - After months of plummeting sales, Vietnam's poultry markets are springing back to life, selling chicken and eggs certified virus-free, as avian influenza outbreaks appear to be in check.
The first major market reopened last week in Ha Tay province, 15 kilometres (nine miles) southwest of Hanoi, offering chicken and eggs neatly packed in plastic bags and sporting veterinarians' certificates.
"Each day we are selling 400 to 500 chickens, a big change from the mere 100 or so two weeks ago," said Tran Thien Quan, head of the Phuong Hien store in Ha Tay, managed by Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Group.
Some 10,000 poultry had been culled by the company following a bird flu outbreak a year ago, Quan told AFP.
"Come and see our clean poultry and eggs", proclaimed a long red banner atop a store where 20 young workers clad in red overalls, hats and plastic gloves lined five airconditioned glass cages.
Others handed out free samples of roast chicken to some school children.
Chicken and eggs have disappeared from markets and restaurant menus across the country over the last few months, with many people shunning poultry products as a result of bird flu.
Vietnam has been the country hardest hit by the H5N1 strain of avian influenza. Since late 2003, as many as 93 people have contracted the virus and 42 of them have died.
The north of the country was particularly badly hit by the latest outbreaks that began in early October. So far, 25 of Vietnam's 64 provinces, including 18 in the north, have been affected but 10 of them have reported no fresh outbreaks in three weeks.
More than 3.4 million poultry have been culled in Vietnam or have succumbed to the virus over the last two and a half months, leaving farmers and vendors struggling to make ends meet.
Tran Cong Xuan, chairman of the Vietnam Poultry Association, said earlier this week that the country's farmers were losing more than 1.1 trillion dong (more than 71 million dollars) a month because of falling sales.
"We are selling a three-kilogram (6.5 pound) chicken for just 50,000 dong (about three dollars), about a third of the price we got before these bird flu outbreaks," said Nguyen Thi Duyen, a vendor at the Ha Tay market.
"We also sell more than 6,000 eggs every day at present," she said with a note of optimism in her voice.
"At first we had to plead with our customers, explaining to them and showing them the vets' certificates stamped on each of our chickens," she said.
The efforts seem to be working.
"I was a bit concerned at first but I am more confident now because the bird flu situation is getting better," said Nguyen Quang Hong, 52, a Hanoi school teacher. "I bought chickens for my family and friends who haven't had chickens for months."
Last week, Agriculture Minister Cao Duc Phat was shown on national television eating a chicken dish.
"Take concrete action to help farmers sell their chickens and limit their losses," he said in an appeal to the nation.
His exhortation came ahead of feverish preparations for the boom consumption period of Tet, or Lunar New Year festival in late January, when the Year of the Rooster gives way to the Year of the Dog in the 12-yearly cycle.
Agence France Presse - December 14, 2005.
Cambodia culls 6,000 ducks smuggled across the border from Vietnam
PHNOM PENH - Authorities have culled roughly 6,000 ducks that Vietnamese farmers had illegally herded across the border into a remote village in southwestern Cambodia, officials said Friday.
The Vietnamese farmers from Kien Giang province smuggled the flocks into Cambodia's Kampot province to evade Vietnam's ongoing campaign to slaughter home-raised poultry to prevent the spread of bird flu, said So Vitou, head of animal health office in Kampot.
Cambodian health officials on Tuesday and Wednesday killed the birds, stuffed them into sacks and burned them in pits using kerosene, he said.
Vietnam has intensified its destruction of home-raised poultry since late last month, he said.
"But several Vietnamese poultry farmers, fearing business losses because of the tightening of measures in Vietnam, quietly herded their stocks to our side to avoid elimination by Vietnamese officials,'' he said.
Cambodian officials discovered several herds of the ducks near a lake about three kilometers (1.8 miles) inside Cambodia, he said.
He said that there were at least five Vietnamese owners of the flocks, but they fled back to Vietnam after their birds were seized.
The H5N1 bird flu virus has ravaged poultry farms across Asia since 2003, and killed at least 71 people, most of them in Vietnam.
Cambodia has had four human deaths so far. Almost all human cases of the disease have been traced to direct contact with infected birds. Experts fear the virus could mutate into a form that passes easily between people, sparking a pandemic.
Meanwhile, Douglas Gardner, country representative of the U.N. development agency, said Friday that about US$18 million (euro15 million) will be needed to tackle bird flu in Cambodia in the next 18 months, but the need "might be much greater'' if a human pandemic starts.
He spoke at a press conference with David Nabarro, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan's envoy, who is on a one-day visit to discuss bird flu with Cambodian officials.
Nabarro urged the government to stay alert for a pandemic, which could start anywhere in the world but is more likely to occur in countries hard hit by bird flu, including Cambodia.
"Cambodia has to be prepared and ready for a possible pandemic'' because it could push back the development it has achieved following decades of conflict, he said.
The Cambodian government and the U.N.'s Food and Agriculture Organization have recently launched a joint program to train and equip 1,500 village animal health workers to combat bird flu.
The project is being conducted in six Cambodian provinces bordering Thailand and Vietnam. One of them is Kampot, which is 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Phnom Penh, the capital.
In a statement received Friday, the German Embassy said its government has given the FAO US$3.1 million (euro2.6 million) to implement bird flu programs in Cambodia.
They include strengthening of disease control and surveillance and bolstering public education about the disease and food safety.
The Associated Press - December 16, 2005.
|