Experts raise concern over toxic poultry

A poultry farmer is losing more than Sh100 for a kilo of chicken meat due to reported cheap imports that have recently flooded the market allegedly from the United States. This means billions of shillings of investment are going down the drain.

From Sh300 per kilo of chicken meat, farmers are now selling at Sh200, a throw-away price as they try to salvage what they invested for production. This is according to a market survey carried by the poultry stakeholders in local broiler meat outlets in Nairobi.

The current situation in Kenya, according to the poultry and feed production stakeholders, has put the country’s Sh60 billion national poultry industry in danger of collapsing.

If these imports are not stopped, the Kenyan Poultry and Animal Feeds industry players, say they risk losing more money running into billions of shillings. Already importers have brought into the local consumer market up to 20 tonnes at a time when there is plenty of chicken which farmers are struggling to off-load.

Already, the farmers have recorded losses accruing from the imports which they say started flooding the local market recently, affecting the price of a kilo of chicken meat downwards.

However, according to the Ministry of Agriculture records, there is no trader who has been licensed to import poultry and its products from the US.

The ministry’s Chief Administrative Secretary, Andrew Tuimur said the Directorate of Veterinary Services is investigating the matter. “We traditionally import from Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa. But for this one it looks like unscrupulous traders are taking advantage,” he said.

Association of Kenya Feed Manufacturers manager, Humphrey Mbugua said besides affecting the local price, the cheap imports could be posing health and safety dangers since the status of origin is unknown to them.

“The imported poultry products could be of good quality, but cooling facilities at ports of entry and the retail outlets are poor or non-existent in Kenya.”

Source: http://www.mediamaxnetwork.co.ke/477814/experts-raise-concern-over-toxic-poultry/