Fast-growing chicken scandal deals heavy blow to farming industry, day-old chicks at one mao each with no buyers

After the "fast-grown chicken" scandal was exposed, Shanxi Suhai Group has remained in the eye of the storm. Photo by reporter Wu Jinbiao (file photo)

From Shanxi Suhai Group being exposed for feeding "fast-grown chickens" feed that "can kill flies" in 45 days, to CCTV exposing farmers in Shandong's Liuhe and Yingtai using banned drugs, to Henan Dayong Group being exposed last week for processing and selling dead chickens. Recently, reports about "fast-grown chickens" have made consumers turn pale at the mention of "chicken."

But is it only farming enterprises that the "fast-grown chicken" scandal has "devastated"? Who ultimately pays the price for this disaster? The reporter hopes this series of reports can show everyone a true and comprehensive picture of the current state of the broiler industry, and even more hopes that the broiler industry can learn from its painful lessons and take the fast-grown chicken scandal as the starting point for upgrading and transforming the entire industry.

The wounds of farming: No one buys day-old chicks, breeding farms have no choice but to burn them

"There's no way around it. These chicks used to sell for 3 yuan each, now they've dropped to 0.1 yuan, and still no one buys them. We can only burn them!" On December 30, 2012, at a breeding farm in Zhaoyuan, our province, another batch of commercial day-old chicks was put into the incinerator. Relevant production records show that this was already the second batch of chicks the company had burned.

This is not an isolated phenomenon. "We produce 500,000 day-old chicks every day. We burned another batch a few days ago. This year we'll lose at least 50 or 60 million. A loss is a loss, this is the price we should pay for the industry's development." At the January 15 symposium of large leading white-feather broiler enterprises in Shandong, Minhe Animal Husbandry Chairman Sun Ximin said as much.

Recent continuous media exposure quickly turned the fast-grown chicken storm into a disaster affecting the entire white-feather broiler industry chain. For a time, prices of white-feather broilers and processed products fell, and sales declined.

According to information learned from Zhaoyuan City Dongliang Farm and several other units, the price of commercial day-old chicks has suffered a devastating blow since the "incident" occurred, and they are in a state of having no buyers. The price dropped from around 3 yuan previously directly to a low of around 0.1 yuan. Most production units have switched to incubating balut (balut are breeding eggs incubated for about 15 days, priced at 0.5 yuan each). "But if too much balut is produced all at once, selling it also becomes a problem. So we can only burn part of it." Relevant personnel expressed helplessly.

The sharp drop in chick prices and sales is mainly because some farmers and small farms have given up breeding. "The chicken farmer in the neighboring village was exposed, and superiors sent people to investigate. After the incident, broiler prices are bound to fall. The risk is too great, I don't dare raise them anymore." In a farming area in Gaomi, the first reaction of farmer Wang was to stop breeding.

The wounds of sales: Customers don't trust it, broiler product sales halved

"Is the chicken breast and chicken legs you sell here that kind of 'fast-grown chicken'? Where is it produced?" On January 18, at the Lixia RT-Mart supermarket in Jinan, the reporter was about to talk with a salesperson about recent sales when an elderly customer first pointed at the chicken leg meat in the counter and asked. The salesperson smiled wryly and told the customer, "The cut chicken and fried chicken legs sold in the supermarket mainly come from broilers from large slaughterhouses, all of the white-feather broiler breed. The supermarket also has Sanhuang chicken and Luhua chicken, which are priced much higher."

The salesperson told the reporter that from the day the media exposed it, "fast-grown chicken" suddenly became known to everyone, and also became the product most often asked about. Although they explained this broiler breed, customers remained half-believing and half-doubting. At the worst point, sales dropped by more than half.

"However, the impact was greatest at the end of last month, and recently sales have rebounded. First, white-feather broilers are the main breed, with large volume and low price; second, through this incident consumers have more or less come to understand the common knowledge about how this breed is raised, and are not so panicked anymore." She added.

"This fast-grown chicken exposure incident has also caused a big impact internationally. Whether it will affect exports, or whether testing items will be increased, is still hard to say at present." Broiler export-oriented enterprises such as Zhucheng Foreign Trade and Jiulian expressed concerns about foreign trade. It is understood that among current domestic meat exports, broiler products account for more than 80%. From January to November 2012, China's poultry product exports amounted to 5.82 billion US dollars, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year. If foreign buyers reduce import volumes or increase testing items, for domestic enterprises it will mean either reduced exports or increased export costs. And Shandong is the country's largest broiler farming province, and also a major export province. Shandong's broiler exports account for more than 2/3 of the national total. When there is the slightest disturbance in the international market, Shandong is the first to be affected.