Consumption of breeding chicken faces difficulties

The transportation of breeding chicken to southern provinces and cities is facing many difficulties due to the strict pandemic prevention measures, leading to high costs and huge loss that have affected the businesses.

The parent chickens of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd lay eggs every day but the company now has to cut the hatching stage because the chicks cannot be sold. Photo: Vu Dinh Thung.

Difficulties

Binh Dinh Province now has two enterprises specialising in the production of high quality breeding chicken - Minh Du Poultry Breeding Company Limited in Phuoc Nghia Commune (Tuy Phuoc District) and Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Company Limited in Cat Tan Commune, Phu Cat district.

Minh Du Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. annually produces over 60 million commercial breeding chickens, 95% of which supply for domestic consumption and 5% for export. Meanwhile, Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. produces nearly 30 million 1-day-old breeding chicks every year, supplying domestic and international markets.

In recent years, the southern and western provinces have become a large market for the consumption of breeding chickens of enterprises in Binh Dinh and the number of local farmers who have switched to raising chickens has increased strongly. However, the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused many difficulties for the transportation of chicken breeds to the southern and western provinces, disturbing the production activities of the enterprises.

According to Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, salesperson of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. in the southern region, the consumption of breeding chickens in this area is no longer as easy as before, as it is facing many arising difficulties like increased cost of transportation and loss of breeding chicken. Many trucks loaded with breeding chickens have to turn the vehicles around, being unable to deliver the chicks to customers.

She said drivers currently have to take a quick COVID-19 test with a fee from VND 130,000 to nearly VND 400,000 per test, which is paid by the company.

“The fee for a quick Covid-19 test according to the state regulations is more than 130,000 VND / test, but the southern provinces are experiencing a pandemic outbreak so most hospitals have run out of tests. The drivers therefore have to take the test at private clinics that charge the test much higher, even up to VND 350,000.

“Meanwhile, the test result is valid only for 3 days, which means that the driver must take the test for each shipment and if the delivery fails, the return trip might take another test,” she added.

Furthermore, trucks transporting breeding chicken to the south for consumption have to travel through many disease control checkpoints, queuing for passing that might take from one to two hours. The breeding chickens are only one day old and therefore might become weak and die even though they are transported in specialised vehicles.

“Previously, a large specialized vehicle could contain up to 40,000 chicks. Presently, if there is an order of large numbers, we have to divide the chickens into two small trucks to reduce the number of them suffocated and dying along the way.”

“Each shipment of the company therefore costs an additional fee from VND two to three million. Even though the shipment has been halved to avoid loss, the company also has to pay for the customers’ loss while raising the chickens at their farms, which is also the way our company shares the difficulties with our customers, especially in the context of the pandemic," Ngoc said.

Dropped prices, decreased consumption

Van Thi Minh Nguyet, a market employee of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd., said that the company's 1-day-old chicks still had a listed price of VND 12,000-13,000 /head just less than half a month ago, but consumption had decreased by 50%.

Presently, the price for a breeding chicken offered by the company is only slightly higher than that of an ordinary chicken egg and consumption has decreased by 80-90%.

Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Company Limited has limited hatching eggs which are being sold to the market at low costs, causing great damage to the business. 

Chicken eggs on the market are priced at VND 3,000 - 4,000 / egg, while the company's breeding chickens are sold only from VND 5,000 to 8,000 / head, depending on the region. Meanwhile, the cost of hatching chicks is high due to wages for workers, money paid for electricity, equipment depreciation, etc., leading to insufficient capital.

The price of each breeder is almost equivalent to that of a normal egg. 

Despite such losses, the company still has to continue its operation because its production capacity reaches 2 million chickens/month with new chicks released from the incubator everyday. Even now, the company has to cut the hatching stage because the chicks cannot be sold.

“Eggs laid by parenting chickens must be brought to the markets for sale at any low costs everyday; otherwise, they would take additional money for preservation. If the consumption volume would have been reduced by 50 % about half a month ago, such figure has decreased to 80-90%”, said Tran Thi Bich Ngoc, a salesperson of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd. in the southern region.

One of the reasons for the sharp decrease in the consumption of breeding chickens is the limited supply of feed for the chickens in the southern and western regions.

According to Ms. Ngoc's explanation, people raising 1,000 - 2,000 chickens need to have animal feed regularly.

Previously, agents rented trucks or drivers to transport feed to chicken farms. However, the drivers now have to pay the cost of quick Covid-19 tests and even have to be isolated according to regulations after returning from the pandemic-struck areas.

Therefore, a driver has to take over ten days off after each shipment, in addition to the cost for a quick test, none of them have been interested in transporting feed for chicken farms. As long as the source of feed is unstable, the farmers have cancelled orders of large quantities, which has caused huge loss to the businesses of breeding chickens.