While hundreds of thousands of birds have been slaughtered across the country, the outbreak of bird flu might not impact the nation's economy, but it might prove to be a turning point to transform the industry, an economist said yesterday.
"Unlike Thailand which is a major exporter of chickens in Asia, the poultry industry in Taiwan is mainly for domestic consumption and thereby the impact brought by the disease would only ail the industry, instead of the whole economy," said Hwang Tsorng-chyi (
PHOTO: AFP
Consumers are used to purchasing live chickens in the traditional marketplaces and then having the chickens slaughtered on the spot. Such practices, accounting for over 50 percent of the chicken sold in the marketplaces, fall short of hygiene standards.
"The bird flu crisis has raised consumers' concerns about food-safety controls in the breeding and slaughtering process, which could push the local industry to carry out modernization," Hwang said.
The economist said the industry should give up current slaughter methods in order to meet the international food safety control system's standards, or HACCP.
"This would also strengthen the industry's competitiveness in the face of the imported meat after the full-scale liberalization," he said.
The nation has around 350 million bred chickens worth about NT$60 billion. Adding in the NT$35 billion forage industry, the whole industry may reach NT$100 billion, according to the statistics from the Council of Agriculture.
So far, 88,000 chickens and 10,000 ducks have been culled due to the detection of H5N2, the weaker strain of the virus, said Yeh Ying (
Consumers have become more cautious about eating chicken.
At Carrefour, the nation's lar-gest hypermarket chain, fish and seafood sales have surged about 20 percent since early last month while chicken sales slumped more than 40 percent, said Lilian Lee (
To enhance food safety and pre-clude the possibility of disease contagion, consumers should buy the meat from modern retailers to ensure they are getting certified safe food, Lee said.
In a bid to lower the poultry industry's losses from declining demand, the government should slaughter and freeze chickens and release them to the market after the price becomes stable, Hwang said.
Bird flu could cost the region tens of billions of dollars, according to Jean-Pierre Verbiest, assistant chief economist at the Asian Development Bank.
"If the flu creates a major travel scare ... tourism and other economic losses could reach tens of billions of dollars," Verbiest said.
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