Russia forecasts further growth of poultry sector

 

The Russian union of poultry farmers forecasts chicken production to increase by 7.3% and turkey production to increase by 5%, compared to the level of 2012. This positive trend in production is mostly due to favourable ongoing government support programmes.

Also the Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS) forecasts broiler imports to remain stable in 2013 after an anticipated growth of 3% in 2012 compared to the level of 2011, due to an increase in broiler meat consumption instead of the more expensive pork and beef.

The FAS also reported that chicken meat imports increased by 3% in 2012 to 515,000 tonnes due to a significant increase in imports from Ukraine, which grew from 5,171 tonnes in January-June 2011 to 7,430 tonnes in January-June 2012, as well as due to a higher volume of 2012 broiler tariff import quotas. Russian broiler imports are forecast to grow another 3% in 2013, primarily as a result of growing duty free and quota-free imports from Ukraine and Belarus.

According to the Russian Federal Static Service, Russia imported 191,245 tonnes of broiler products in January - June 2012, a 17% increase over the same period in 2011.

Given the increase in domestic production, it is anticipated that domestic production will satisfy the needs of Russian consumers. Also it is expected that domestic production, plus imports equivalent to the Russian poultry import of 330,000 tonnes volume this year, will exceed the needs of the country. The volume of poultry available in the Russian market is expected to increase price competition within the country which may, in turn, encourage poultry exports.

Economic impact of US poultry industry highlighted

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The National Chicken Council (NCC) and the US Poultry & Egg Association (USPOULTRY) have made available a new economic impact study and website that highlights the positive impact the chicken industry has on jobs, wages and federal and state revenue in the United States.

A dynamic and integral part of the national economy, the chicken industry directly and indirectly provides 1,010,250 jobs, $47 billion in wages, $197.5 billion in economic activity and $17.2 billion in government revenue, according to the results of the new study.

“While chicken farms and chicken processing plants are not located in every state or congressional district in this country, this study captures the fact that our industry’s positive economic impact stretches from coast to coast and hits every sector of the US economy,” said NCC President Mike Brown.

“We are pleased to be able to provide this valuable tool across the industry that demonstrates the positive economic impact we have on our communities,” said John Starkey, president of USPOULTRY.

The study’s data is hosted on an interactive website that can be sorted nationally, by state, congressional district, state house district or state senate district.

The economic impact study was funded by USPOULTRY. The study was conducted by John Dunham & Associates, based in New York City, and uses data from 2012. Additionally, studies were conducted for the poultry industry as a whole, and for the turkey and egg industries, respectively.

China to work with Nepal on pig agriculture sector

//05 Oct 2012
In a bid to quicken the pace of farm yard commercialisation in Nepal, the Agriculture Ministries of Nepal and China have signed a five-point agreement during the third bilateral Nepal-China Agriculture Assistance meeting held in Kathmandu, China news agency Xinhua reports.
A press statement issued after completion of the meeting stated that Agriculture Ministry of People's Republic of China has agreed to develop Nepal's agriculture in its mountainous regions in applying modern technology to livestock farming, fisheries and agriculture.

The bilateral Nepal-China Agricultural Assistance meeting is being held in every two years. The next bilateral meeting, the fourth, is scheduled to take place in Beijing in 2014.

Agreement
Dr Pravkar Pathak, joint secretary and spokesperson at the Ministry of Agriculture said that the two ministries also reached an agreement to begin joint agriculture research in the pig farming, poultry, horticulture, cereal crop cultivation and corn seed production sectors.

The two countries will also expand and strengthen the current quarantine processes at customs points while exporting Nepali agro-products, said Pathak.

Disease reduction
Pathak said that China of late was more amenable to carrying out disease-reduction programmes in both plants and animals.

"China’s agriculture ministry most importantly agreed to develop more qualitative human resources in Nepal in the days ahead, agreeing to accept Nepalese technician team’s enrolments to China’s various agricultural training centres, to foster the exchange of expertise and ideas,” said Pathak.

The Ministry of Agricultural Development has decided to form a five-member task force led by the joint-secretary to the Ministry to prepare a detailed working plan and guide its proper implementation.

Related website:
• Xinhua News

Taiwan reports finding of ractopamine in US pork

//05 Oct 2012
Taiwanese health authorities announced this week that they had discovered that pork made with US sourced meat contained ractopamine.
This was reported by the country’s Central News Agency (CNA).

Although allowed in beef imports, the feed additive is banned in pork imports in Taiwan. Country officials gave the news at a press conference held to announce the results of an inspection of foods used by breakfast stores in New Taipei, the CNA said. The report did not identify a supplier in the United States.

Pork balls
The pork balls, in which the drug was found, were said to contain 0.4 parts per billion (ppb) of ractopamine. The probe also found pork burger that contained 9.3 ppb of chloramphenicol, an antibiotic also banned in pork in Taiwan, according to the CNA.

The Taiwanese government stated that a total ban on the drug in imported pork will be maintained.

Related website:
• Central News Agency

Pork with African Swine Fever hits Russian market

//05 Oct 2012
A consignment of bacon from a fair held late September in the Leningrad Oblast was found to be infected with the African Swine Fever (ASF) virus.
This was stated by a specialist at the Russian Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance (Rosselkhoznadzor).

“During laboratory studies the genome of the ASF virus was detected in salted bacon produced by Lipetsk JSC Meat Master, traded by the individual entrepreneur Shchigrov at the Agricultural Fair, held in September, 28-29 of 2012 in Tosno, Leningrad region,” report Rosselkhoznadzor.

Rosselkhoznadzor asked consumers not to feed the products purchased from this vendor to animals without prior heat treatment, cautioning as well not to throw away the wastes without disinfection.

In order to prevent the introduction of ASF virus, owners of the private pig farms in the region should invite experts of the State Veterinary Service to examine their animals. Farmers are also advised to avoid exposing their pigs to contact other animals including people, which may be sources of infection, and to disinfect the places where pigs are kept, as well as storage facilities, processing facilities, equipment and working clothes.

First confirmed case
It is the first officially confirmed case of ASF-contaminated pork slipping through to the shops for the whole period of reported spread of the disease in Russia. The case is quite unusual given that virus was officially confirmed registered in the Leningrad region a year ago. Most likely, the infected meat was imported to the fair from other regions of Russia, experts said.

Rosselkhoznadzor experts also pointed out that the virus is not dangerous to humans, even after eating infected meat there will be no negative effect on the health of people. But still consumers who purchased the meat at the fair are strongly recommended not to consume it themselves.

Related website:
• Rosselkhoznadzor

Cambodian pig farming changes hands: locals pushed out

//03 Oct 2012
Cambodian farmers are feeling the feed squeeze as Thai imports are cheaper and flooding the market. Cambodian pig prices are down by 5% but feed costs are up 25%, all of which are contributing to small farmers leaving pig farming and large corporations and cheaper imports to take over the market.
The average Cambodian consumes 9.3 kg of pork a year and local farmers have long supplemented their incomes by selling an average of two pigs per year.

In 2008, Cambodian farmers sent 2 million pigs to market, accommodating more than 90% of domestic demand. But the small local farmers on the domestic market are being pushed out by large-scale producers and cheaper imports from Thailand.

Live pig prices in Cambodia have fallen 53.5% to about 7,000 riel (€1.34) per kg in one year, pork industry executives say.

Thai imports
Nearly 30% of all subsistence pig farmers have called it quits since last year. Prathna Preap, a swine market expert working for an USAID agency, said that if the government was unable to turn back the tide of cheaper Thai pork imports, then subsistence pig farmers will disappear in five years.

Some farmers are claiming that Thai exporters are using growth hormones to increase the size of their pigs. With a hormone regime, pigs can achieve slaughter weight in half the time (three months) than that achieved through normal feeding. The competitive advantage in hormone supplementation is two-pronged, for not only is the turnover time reduced, feed costs are also less.

In September 2011 Thailand lifted its moratorium on pig exports to Cambodia, with as result that half of Cambodia’s estimated pig consumption (6,000 pigs per day) is accounted for by Thai producers, at reduced production costs.

Corporations take over
With subsistence pig raisers on the way out, corporate processors such as M’s Pig ACMA (Cambodia) Company, 91% owned by the local conglomerate Mong Reththy Group, are taking their place.

According to the Mong Reththy website, the group is planning 16 commercial farms and 15 feed mills and four slaughterhouses able to fill 35-38% of the market’s total demand by 2015.

The other large company who is making its presence felt in Cambodia is Thailand’s Charoen Pokphand (CP) Group. It has US$37.2 million’s worth of pig and poultry feed mills and livestock farming plants set in Cambodia, according to its 2011 financial report, but pig production numbers were not available.

“The pigs [produced by the companies] are better quality than those of the local farmers because of better breeding, hygiene and feeding practices, making the meat leaner,” said Preap. “Companies have also begun delivering the pigs to slaughterhouses directly, where before, pig collectors would have to come to the villages to buy them.”

Over the past year local corporate swine operations have doubled their capacity, and have increased their stake in the market by 33-50%, producing 2,000 to 3,000 pigs a day, he said.

Srun Pov, president of the Cambodian Pig Raisers Association, said that without an anti-dumping law, it is up to the companies to provide quality pork and stabilise prices.

“I think that if they can produce enough local pigs then it would be a good thing since we would stop importing from Thailand. I don’t think those companies can produce enough though,” he said.

Source: Bangkok Post

UK: Pfizer launches poultry vaccine for E coli

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Animal health company Pfizer has launched the first modified live vaccine in the UK to protect broilers, pullets and breeders against E coli.

The vaccine was initially developed at Weybridge, Surrey, in the 1990s, employing genome technology to produce an avirulent strain of E coli that induces immunity to pathogenic strains of the bacteria.

It was then launched in the USA six years ago as Poulvac E coli by animal health company Fort Dodge, before the company was acquired by Pfizer in 2009. It has now gained EU approval.

E.coli is one of the most significant bacterial pathogens found in chicks during the first week, leading to problems throughout the life of a flock including inferior performance, lack of uniformity and increased mortality.The vaccine is administered as a coarse spray, with the onset of immunity 14 days afterwards, lasting up to 12 weeks. It can be used from day-old up to six weeks before the onset of lay, and has no withdrawal period.

"Poulvac E coli provides broad cross protection against the main serotypes of E coli infecting chickens," said Pfizer poultry technical manager Stuart Andrews. "It is the only modified live, non-reactive vaccine proven to meet the EU regulatory requirements for efficacy and safety."

Field trials in the USA and Morocco have shown it to be effective at lowering mortality and lesions caused by various strains of E coli, as well as reducing dependence on antibiotics.