Manitoba chicken exports have been reduced by roughly 50 percent as a result of import bans in the Philippines and Taiwan.

Both nations are on the list of countries that have closed their border to poultry products from Manitoba as a result of the discovery of H5N2 avian influenza in a turkey-breeding operation in the RM of Rockwood.

"Every eight week cycle, we grow about five percent of our production for export. So that would be approximately 300 to 340 thousand kilograms eviscerated, and approximately half of that would go to countries that have banned poultry products from Manitoba," explains Wayne Hiltz, general manager of the Manitoba Chicken Producers. "The ones that affect Manitoba's chicken market are Taiwan and the Philippines."

Processors have notified producers that their monthly slaughter-for-export requirements for January and February have been reduced by around 50 percent.

"Basically, all of February has been eliminated for export growth and so that will an affect on producers in that they were planning on growing some of that product and now it's not required," Hiltz says, noting this will create a backlog of chicken. "Once a chick is in the barn or the hatching egg is in the incubator, the process has already started to grow that kilo of chicken. So we do have kilograms of chicken that either have been grown, or are in the process of being grown for exports destined for those countries. That's having an effect on our processors because now they have to find other markets or sell that product frozen into Canada."

"We'll have to make further evaluations for chicken that was to be grown for export in March and April at a later date," says Hiltz.

He says they're optimistic the import bans will be lifted by early May 2011.

"Removing the ban is up to their government officials and their discussions with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency. CFIA does not control what other countries do. Several countries have decided to follow the CFIA protocol and ban poultry products from within ten kilometres of the quarantined farms...but other countries, obviously are not forced to follow those guidelines. In this case, Philippines and Taiwan have made their own decision to ban products from all of Manitoba," he says. "We're optimistic that in countries that accept the CFIA protocol, we could see the bans lifted by May 1st."

~ Monday, December 20, 2010 ~