AMIE warns of higher poultry prices

Industry organisation the Association of Meat Importers and Exporters of Southern Africa (AMIE) has warned that poultry prices may increase over the festive season and into the new year owing to the poultry shortages caused by the highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu, outbreak and the failure of government to timeously introduce a rebate on import tariffs and other emergency measures. To address the poultry shortages caused by the bird flu outbreak, the local poultry industry has imported 83-million fertilised eggs. However, they were imported on an urgent basis at three times the price of a locally grown day-old chick.