If pork too expensive, go for chicken, advises Thai broiler association chief
People in Thailand are being urged to switch to chicken in a bid to tackle the shortage of pork, rising prices and to help poultry farmers nationwide.
Somboon Watcharapongpun, president of the Thai Broiler Association, said reducing demand is another way of tackling the rising price crisis.
“Chicken is just as nutritional as pork, is easy to consume and can be bought anywhere,” he said. “Boosting demand will also help more than 10,000 chicken farmers nationwide.”
Somboon added that the government’s moves to cut import tariffs on animal feed was a welcome relief because farmers have had to foot high costs for a long time.
However, he said, the cost of animal feed produced locally was also high because the government has been keeping the price of agricultural crops high.
“We call on the government to reconsider measures related to animal feed, especially corn, in a bid to promote carbon-free breeding of chickens that match the demand of importers, especially those in the European Union,” he said.
“Last year, the price of soybean and soybean meal rose by 30 per cent to 18 baht per kilo, while the cost of corn has risen to 11.50 baht per kilo,” he said.
“The cost of vitamin supplements from overseas has risen by 20 to 30 per cent.”
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