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Kurdish poultry industry picks up slowly
22.6.2006
By Wrya Hama Tahir in Sulaimaniyah (ICR No. 182) |
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Sulaimaniyah,
Kurdistan-Iraq, -- Poultry experts say the industry
is slowly recovering in Sulaimaniyah, months after
the government stemmed an outbreak of the deadly
bird flu virus.
Locally-sourced poultry and eggs, which the
government pulled from the market when the H5N1
strain of avian flu killed at least one person in
January, have returned to the markets and shops in
this northeastern Kurdish city.
Poultry farmers suffered heavy loss after sales
stopped virtually overnight. While cases of the
disease emerged in other parts of Iraq, the
authorities in Sulaimaniyah have not reported any
new bird flu scares since January.
But farmers producing poultry meat and eggs say the
revival has not been easy, and that the industry
lost millions of dollars because of the government's
limited ability to cull birds.
"The market has suffered," said Sarwar Kareem, head
of the Kurdistan Poultry Association. "It needs
another year to recover because there isn't any
guarantee that the disease can be dealt with."
While some in Sulaimaniyah are still hesitant to buy
chicken and eggs for fear of another outbreak,
farmers and traders report that sales are rising.
"Business is improving, but I think it will take a
few more months before we reach the sales we had
prior to the outbreak," said Salam Ahmad Ali, a
poultry farmer in Bazyan in the south of
Sulaimaniyah province.
There is only one slaughterhouse in Sulaimaniyah
province, and it could not cope with the huge demand
after the government ordered a cull that eventually
extended to about half the one million chickens
across the region, said the provincial veterinary
department.
The government has earmarked more than three million
US dollars as compensation for culled birds and has
paid out about two-thirds of it, according to
Ibrahim Khidr Ahmed, director of planning at the
agriculture ministry.
Kurdish officials complain that promises of aid to
deal with the avian flu outbreak, including 10
million dollars from international organisations and
separate pledges from the government, have not come
through.
Farmers whose birds died before they could be
slaughtered under the government cull suffered the
most financially, since they lost out on
compensation.
Ali, a farmer who had 8,000 chickens when the
outbreak happened, was told to wait to be assigned a
time to take his birds for slaughter, but because
his farm is 180 kilometres south of Sulaimaniyah,
his turn never came. After waiting for a month,
during which time 1,500 chickens had died, he sold
the others illegally.
He reckons he lost about six million Iraqi dinars,
40,000 dollars, in all.
Kamil Faqe Mohammad owns six poultry farms in
Sulaimaniyah province and sells the eggs they
produce throughout Iraq. He says he lost about two
million dollars due to the disease and because his
birds were not culled by the government.
He has not received compensation, and is not
expecting to get any.
“We have visited the agriculture ministry. They know
about our losses, but because they didn't kill the
chickens by themselves, they're not going to
compensate us," he said.
Mohammad is now selling about 300,000 eggs daily,
down from 360,000 before bird flu arrived.
The government continues to run public awareness
campaigns encouraging people to be cautious when
handling chickens. Mohammad Qadir Khoshnaw, the
former minister of health in the Sulaimaniyah
administration, said the government cannot guarantee
that the virus will not return because is so
difficult to control.
"There is the possibility that the disease could
emerge at any moment," he said.
Wrya Hama Tahir is an IWPR trainee journalist in
Sulaimaniyah.
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