35m-euro losses for chicken farmers

Chicken producers saw losses of almost 35 million euros in the last three months of last year due to a 40% consumption drop, especially because of the bird flu. “Local producers had to cut ex-works prices by about 1.5 – 2 RON/kilo (i.e. 0.4 – 0.55 euros) and are faced with unfair competition from imported products,” stated Ilie Van, chairman of the Poultry Farmers Union (UCPR). The price drop brought about losses of over 13.6 million euros in the industry as a whole in addition to losses generated by the exports ban, amounting to 4.6 million euros. Despite price cuts, domestic producers could not stop the slump in sales. According to information from the UCPR, domestic consumption was down from 38,300 tonnes in September to just 23,000 tonnes, which led to the accumulation of a stock of 20,000 tonnes of chicken for local producers. In addition to that, Romanians preferred imported products, which are much cheaper, but non-compliant with EU norms. For example, the average price for tonne of chicken produced in Romania reaches as high as 1,500 euros, while the same amount of imported chicken costs only 650 euros. ZF