ne w s
Taiwan culls A W million birds
china/us deal
A
poultry farm in Erlin Township, Changhua County in central Taiwan, was confirmed as being infected with the highly pathogenic H5N2 avian influenza virus, leading to the culling of 16,989 birds, the county's Animal Disease Control Center said. This was the ninth poultry farm hit by avian influenza subtype H5 in the county this year, according to data released by the Cabinetlevel Council of Agriculture, reports Focus Taiwan So far a total of 1,034,592 birds have been destroyed at 112 poultry farms infected with highly pathogenic avian flu viruses across Taiwan since the beginning of the year. The infected poultry farms have been located in Taoyuan City in northern Taiwan; Changhua and Yunlin counties in central Taiwan; Chiayi, Tainan, Kaohsiung and Pingtung counties and cities in the south; Yilan and Hualien counties in
the east, COA data shows. New Taipei Agriculture Department Commissioner Li Wen said although the public needs to remain vigilant ,the avian influenza viruses so far identified in Taiwan have not been transmittable to humans. As long as people wash their hands frequently, purchase meat with certified labels and eat only well-cooked food, they face no risk from the threat of avian flu, he said. According to the World Organization for Animal Health, Taiwan is not the only country hit so far this year by avian flu. Other outbreaks have happened in China, Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Nigeria, Cameroon, Russia, Poland, Austria, France, Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, and Slovakia. However, unlike Taiwan, most of these cases involved only a small number of birds. In the USA, cases have occurred in the states of Kentucky, Wisconsin, and Montana.
hitehouse Spokesperson Sean Spicer has confirmed that during Chinese President Xi Jinping's recent visit with US President Donald Trump, a deal was made to start exporting US beef to China. But a caution to US cattle producers; the chances that this will go through are slim. According to analyst Farha Asiam of Stephens Inc, the potential market for US cattle could be $7 billion. This is not, however, the first time China has agreed to grant US access. Each time before, hurdles appeared at the last moment and the deals got quashed. China is in a huge habit of tying trade deals to politics. With the South China Sea continuing to be a potential source of friction between the two powers, MPJ does not see this deal happening. It's been 13-years since China imposed a ban on US beef, don't start celebrating it's over.
Poland’s poultry set for continued strong growth throughout 2017
T
here is no going back for Poland’s ever expanding poultry industry which continues to lead in Europe, according to the US Department of Agriculture. Last year Poland’s poultry production increased by 15 percent over 2015. Once data has been calculated, it’s expected that the first half of 2017 will have seen an increase of five to seven percent over the same period in 2016. Much of this growth has been stimulated by growing domestic consumption as consumers see poultry as a cheaper and healthier choice than beef. That said, export 8 | Meat Packing Journal | May~June 2017
demand – mostly internal in the EU market – continues to rise. The Polish government is trying to open new markets as well to keep this upward trend. This includes working on obtaining permission to export to the United States. In 2015, Polish poultry production amounted to 2,386,000 metric tons. Poultry meat production consists mainly of chicken broilers (81%), turkey broilers (14%) which are in demand for the domestic meat processing industry, and ducks and geese which are mainly exported to Western Europe, mainly Germany.
This year’s slight slowdown in production is being caused by a reduction of prices for poultry meat on the domestic market and declining export demand. Poultry meat production is based on locally produced grains (mainly corn) and 2 million tons of soybean meal imported mainly from South America or the United States. The major export destinations of Polish poultry meat within the EU are the UK, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Czech Republic. Outside of the EU Poland exports poultry meat to Hong Kong, China and the Congo. www.meatpacking.info