Chicken prices slide to record lows

Chicken farmers in Dong Nai, Binh Duong and Ba Ria-Vung Tau provinces have recently run into difficulties over the constant steep falls in chicken prices.

Before the Tet holiday, the price of white-feathered chickens hovered around VND25,000-VND26,000 per kilogram.

However, farmed chickens sell for VND12,000-13,000 per kilogram now, the lowest ever, leading farmers to incur heavy losses, Motthegioi news site reported.

Free-range chickens are priced at VND25,000-VND27,000 per kilogram, while the price of Tam Hoang chickens has fallen to VND17,000-VND19,000 per kilogram.

Many chicken farmers attributed the drop in chicken prices to the Covid-19 outbreak and concerns over bird flu outbreaks in some provinces.

Nguyen Kim Doan, vice chairman of the Dong Nai Livestock Association, said that poultry farmers are facing heavy losses as the current selling prices are equal to half the chicken farming costs.

Doan pointed out that the extended Lunar New Year holiday and the production delays of some factories, triggered by the coronavirus outbreak, had also resulted in lower demand for ducks and chickens.

Despite the drop in chicken prices at farms, the prices of chicken meat at wet markets, supermarkets and commercial centers remain high.

At some wet markets in HCMC, white-feathered chicken meat is priced at VND50,000-VND55,000 per kilogram, while free-range chicken meat sells for VND90,000-VND100,000 per kilogram.

The price of farmed chicken meat stands at VND60,000 per kilogram at some supermarkets, while free-range chicken meat prices hover around VND80,000 per kilogram.

Statistics from the Department of Livestock Production, under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, indicated that the country has 467 million chickens and ducks. The annual poultry meat output amounts to 1.2 million tons.