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Coronavirus quarantine blocks feed to poultry farms

Poultry farmers in China's Hubei Province claim they are running out of feed due to transport restrictions imposed to prevent the spread of coronavirus. Hubei Province, the epicenter of China's coronavirus epidemic, is under strict quarantine. On January 28, 2020, the Hubei Province poultry farming association issued an emergency appeal to the national feed industry association requesting 18,000 metric tons of corn and 12,000 metric tons of soybean meal--a 10-day supply--to aid the survival of poultry producers. According to the letter, most of the province's "scale" poultry farms are running out of grain due to public health emergency measures that include road closures and limits on transportation to control the spread of the coronavirus. The letter said farms are facing irreparable economic losses and asked that feed companies with production capacity and transportation channels sell the feed ingredients at recent market prices and deliver the feed to Hubei.

It is unclear how companies responding to the appeal would be able to deliver the feed if roads are closed. Hubei normally raises more pigs than poultry, so it's unclear how pig farms are feeding their animals...unless the number of pigs has been decimated by last year's African Swine Fever epidemic.
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Our family said…
I'm in New Zealand and we are being told to expect dramatic price falls. Dairy companies are being forced to stockpile and meat companies have freezers full, cattle were sent back to farms today as meat companies were unable to process due to limited space in chillers/freezers. Also in middle of serious drought covering most of the country.
January 31, 2020 at 2:38 AM
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