Poultry farms blame State Veterinary Service for raised prices

According to APA, he says the recent rise in price of poultry products is due to some bans related to bird flu pandemic. It is not allowed to export one-day chickens and pedigreed eggs to the republic due to the disease.

"This ban causes shortage of chickens and eggs in the country. Some poultry farms can expand their productions thanks to pedigree breeding. However, most of poultry farms could not afford to do it, and have to import one-day chickens and pedigreed eggs. They have appealed to the government for import of these products from Turkey and Iran. However, the State Veterinary Service (SVS) does not allow it," Valiyev said.

He also said that if the SVS allows it, the production of fowl and poultry products will expand in the country again, and this will lead to fall in prices.

Owner of Hovsan poultry farm Maharram Faridov told APA that the SVS deliberately causes this problem He noted that if the veterinary service does not give positive response to their appeal soon, eggs will rise in price gradually. There might be even no egg for sale in autumn. Faridov also noted that eggs should be cut when they are 18-month-old, or else the production declines to 50% or 60%. 200 thousand chickens laid 160-170 eggs a day before, now this indicator declined to 70-80 thousand. He said if chickens for breeding had been exported in January, these chickens would have laid eggs in March. A one-day chicken becomes mature within four months.

General Manager of "Seba Broiler" Zakir Azimov told that they have been keeping the prices stable for half a year. The company sells a kilo of chicken for 12 500 in markets and is not going to raise the prices.

General Manager of "Siyezen Broiler" Ogtay Huseynov told that they raised the prices by 1000 or 2000 manats in the past one month due to the expensive cost of feed. Huseynov thinks the prices can fall after local production of corn and wheat.

The State Veterinary Service chair Ismayil Hasanov claims that owners of some poultry farms make ungrounded statements.

He said the farms have been allowed to import one-day chickens and eggs for breeding from the Netherlands, Hungary and Russia. The SVS allowed Ozat firm to import 24,000 head chickens after the bird flu pandemic. 315,531 head one-day chickens have been imported from Hungary and the Netherlands and Russia and 1,641 050 eggs for breeding from the Netherlands and Hungary since that time.

The poultry farms appealing to import of these products from Iran have been rejected. Hasanov said the products to be imported from Iran have been examined. These products turned out to be produced in insanitation. The products for import from Turkey are being examined now. The results will be made public in ten days. If the results are positive, the SVS will allow their import.