Vehicles carrying baby chicks from Hai Duong have been getting stuck at quarantine stations in neighboring provinces. As products cannot be sold, farmers have to throw the chicks into ponds to feed fish.

Pham Dinh Dua in Yet Kieu commune, known as an "excellent farmer" nationally, owns a fowl farm with 38,000 birds. On February 21 he complained that baby chicks remain unsold, and he still has to feed parent chickens every day, which requires a large amount of bran, and he must pay workers.

“I have incurred a loss of VND30 million a day since the first day of lockdown,” he said.

Dua has been producing baby chicks for 22 years and has never faced such difficulties before.

In 2020, when chicken prices fell, farmers incurred losses of VND200-300 million a month. The situation got better late last year as the prices began increasing. Dua then sighed with relief, hoping that he would begin making a profit this year.

But he could not anticipate the Covid-19 outbreak in his home province of Hai Duong, which forced the local authorities to impose a lockdown. As a result, farmers have faced troubles as they cannot sell breeds.

At present, Dua is raising 38,000 parent fowls, including 30,000 birds in the egg laying age. The fowls give 15,000 eggs for hatchery each day. The others are hens that have stopped laying eggs.

Farmers in Yet Kieu commune, the largest chicken breeding center in the north which can provide 100,000 birds a day, are facing serious problems because of restrictions on travel to other areas because of a Covid outbreak in the province.

The problem is that the hens cannot be sold and still have to be fed daily. They cost VND8 million a day for bran. The later he sells the chickens, the bigger the losses.

The hatchery can produce 15,000 baby chicks every day, but they are difficult to sell because trucks can't go through through quarantine stations set by neighboring provinces.

“A truck of mine some days ago could not enter Hai Phong City and had to come back. Part of the chicks were sold in Chi Linh City in Hai Duong, while the remaining were used to feed fish,” he said.

In general, farmers have to spend VND60 million for every 10,000 baby chicks and the chicks need to be sold at VND6,000 per bird at minimum to break even. However, he just wants to sell the chicks. It would be better to sell chicks at a loss than pour into ponds to feed fish.

Asked why he doesn’t sell eggs, he said the current price of VND1,700 per egg will bring losses.

Baby chicks will spoil if they cannot be sold within one or two days of hatching. Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of chickens are hatched every day. If farmers cannot sell the chicks, they will go bankrupt.

Pham Thi Cuc, the owner of another farm in Yet Kieu, said her truck could not go through a quarantine station in the neighboring province. The truck driver called her and said he would have to return to Hai Duong and follow another way to the destination.

Cuc said her production facility put outs 100,000 baby chicks every two days. The products are distributed to provinces in the north. But sales have stalled since the Covid-19 outbreak.

“If we cannot sell chicks, we wlill have to use the chicks to feed fish. Once we sell the chicks as feed, we will get VND200,000 only for every 10,000 chicks,” she said.

Pham Thi Dao, director of the Hai Duong Agricultural Expansion Encouragement Center, confirmed that chicken hatchery facilities in Yet Kieu are facing difficulties as vehicles cannot go through quarantine stations. There are 45 incubators in the commune, and most of which hatch chickens.

“A household has called me and shouted for help,” she said.

Dao said that feed producers have also been put on tenterhooks as 100 containers of materials for feed production are getting stuck at ports.

The consignments of materials arrived before the Tet holiday (mid-February), but still cannot get clearance. While plants don’t have materials to maintain production, they have to pay VND500,000-800,000 fees for storage per day per container.

Tam An

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