SAUDI Arabia has made an enquiry through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs about buying Myanmar poulty, according to an official from the Myanmar Livestock Federation.

Federation vice chairman U Win Sein said that, while he wasn’t counting his chickens yet, if Myanmar poultry farmers could export their products, either frozen or chilled, to Saudi Arabia it would be a big boost for local producers.
But he said Myanmar farmers would need to meet some requirements so their prod-ucts could be imported in to Saudi Arabia.

“Our farms are known as ‘open’ farms and we would have to change them to ‘closed’ farms, as well as make changes to our cold storage facilities,” U Win Sein said.

“We will prepare for the necessary changes by cooperating with the government departments,” he added.

U Win Sein said the interest comes at a good time for the industry as he predicted there would be an oversupply of chickens in about 10 months time.
“After the Cyclone Nargis we imported many broiler chickens to make up for a shortage. About 75 percent of the number of broiler chickens we planned to import have already arrived to Myanmar,” he said.

While there is still a shortage and prices are now at about K1000 for one broiler chicken, U Win Sein said after the imported chickens have been bred – in about 10 months time – there would be an oversupply and the price could drop to K500 per chicken.

“Supply will exceed demand and so the price will fall. We need to find another market for our chicken meat,” he said. “[Exporting to Saudi Arabia] could be a big chance for chicken farmers as well as for the livestock sector as a whole.”