RIYADH, 8 August 2006 — Responding to pressure from small business owners, the government has extended a deadline for vendors to cease the sale of live poultry within city limits, the Saudi Press Agency reported yesterday. The deadline has been extended to Aug. 6, 2007, in order to provide more time for small vendors to find alternatives to on-site poultry slaughter on demand.
“The additional one year will make the total grace period to four years for these vendors to settle their matters,” said Minister of Agriculture Fahd Balghunaim. “The new regulations governing live-poultry trade were supposed to have come to force this month.” The Agriculture Ministry has reiterated the need for these vendors to alter their trades to be in line with the new regulations, such as slaughtering outside city limits at licensed facilities.
Critics of the policy say that the new rules will push out small vendors and replace them with large farming operations with capacity to ship in freshly slaughtered birds every day, or even numerous times a day.
The Agriculture Ministry has said it would give small vendors licenses to sell frozen poultry. The government implemented these new regulations as a measure against the potential threat of avian flu.
