Poultry breeding companies struggling in pandemic

The prices of chicks have dropped to record lows and the sales are slow. Consequently, poultry breeding companies have to struggle to sustain their operations.

Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ltd is getting “headache” with 100,000 eggs produced every day. Photo: Vu Dinh Thung.

Nguyen Thi Da, Director of Phuc Da Company Limited situated in Phuoc Thang Commune, Tuy Phuc district, Binh Dinh province, said apart from the company’s newly-built factory in Binh Thuan province which has closed down recently, the company’s other factory in Phuoc Thang that has been put into operation for a long time, can only temporize in recent days because it’s hard to sell chicks.

“Currently, the company’s one-day chick are sold for only VND4,000 per chick, a record low and the sales are slow. If any customer comes to buy chicks during this time, the company has to accept to pay high costs for shipping. We now sell one chick for VND4,000 but we have to pay VND2,000 per chick for shipping cost. And that is the cost for transporting in large quantity. In case that customers just buy a small number of chicks we even have to pay higher cost for shipping at over VND2,000 per chick. Even though it’s now unprofitable to selling chicks, we have no choice but selling to solve the problem of having too many chicks as well as to keep the relationship with customers down the track,” shared Da.

Director of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Company Limited said currently, the production of chicks that the company provides to the market falls by 90% due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic making the circulation of chicks and broiler chickens difficult together with high prices of animal feed.

“Our key market is the Southern region. However, 19 provinces and cities here have already enacted social distancing. So, before transporting animal feed to the region truck drivers have to be quickly tested for Covid-19. The minimum test cost is VND135,000 per time. Then, when returning, they must isolate as required by the legislation. While the wages the drivers recieve for each trip are not much, so not many drivers are interested in transporting goods”, Khanh explained.

The salvation for Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co,Ltd’s sales of chicks is now the chicken farming system for processing. According to Khanh, over the past time, the company set up a chicken farming network in many province across the country, at the same time working with five big enterprises to raising chickens for processing.

However, as the Covid-19 disease break out, it’s impossible for the company’s worker to come and take a look at chicken farms. Hence, during this time, the company doesn’t dare to increase the capacity of broiler chicken farms in the system. In addition, it’s difficult to sell chickens in the southern market at the moment, consequently forcing Cao Khanh Company’s farming establishments and partners to delay importing chicks.

Unable to sell their products, most of poultry breeding companies in Binh Dinh are forced to close their hatchery facilities. However, the eggs produced by laying hens every day have made enterprises headache because they are worried about how to sell a huge number of eggs. What Cao Khanh Poultry Co.,Ldt is experiencing is  an example . At present, the company don’t know how to deal with 100,000 egg laid by hens daily.

“Different from commercial eggs, eggs of breeding chickens are hard to sell in the market. Because with the current hot weather it just takes a few days for eggs to develop embryos and yolk to be mixed with eggwhite. These eggd will soon become inconsumable, so actually we still don’t come up with any optimal solution for the problem”, Director of Cao Khanh Poultry Breeding Co., Ldt Cao Khanh said.