JEDDAH, 30 May 2006 — Demand for live poultry has dropped 50 percent in Saudi Arabia after recent government announcements calling for the closure of shops selling live birds.

In spite of pleas from poultry farmers and shop-owners the ministries of agriculture and municipal affairs have stressed that they are committed to ensuring all live poultry shops are shut within four years.

Representatives of the industry say they are trying to delay implementation of the new regulations claiming that the industry is presently unprepared to comply with the new rules, especially with an ongoing price war between local and foreign produce.

On the other hand, consumers are worried that the new law may result in a shortage of fresh poultry. However, municipal officials are calling on the public to remain assured that the government will increase the numbers of slaughterhouses to serve public demand.

Shopper Abdul Ilah Al-Abdali supports the new regulation. He said, “These places operate from random premises costing the government a lot of money in monitoring. The situation is the same with existing unlicensed poultry farms.”

Abdali added that most live-poultry shops are supplied with birds from unlicensed farms. “That’s why I now prefer to buy frozen chicken to protect my family’s health,” he said.

Dr. Naser Al-Jarallah, head of the slaughterhouse section at the Jeddah Municipality, said, “Existing poultry shops and farms do not comply with health regulations, nor do they employ vets to check poultry. The new companies that the government is proposing will adhere to government regulations and will employ vets.”

Al-Jarallah added that the Jeddah Municipality was presently in the process of building two slaughterhouses in the north and south of the city.

Jabir Al-Shihri, head of the Ministry of Agriculture in Makkah, said that the new law would be implemented as scheduled with no intention of any sort of delay.

Al-Shihri made a point noting that the disease that had affected some farms was not related to avian flu but was rather a harmless disease called Newcastle.

He also added that closing live poultry shops and farms would not affect production in the Kingdom and that the slaughterhouses as proposed by the authorities are more than capable to serving local demand.

Al-Shihri noted that the proposed slaughterhouses would be able to handle on average 97,000 birds a year while the local annual production was around 96,000.

Dr. Zia Al-Othmani, head of the markets department at the Jeddah Municipality, said that the new regulation would be officially implemented in August. He added that the municipality had recently fined and closed around 160 poultry shops for not complying with basic health requirements.

Speaking to Arab News, he added that the new law came conveniently at a time when there is an outbreak of bird illnesses, which may spread due to the negligence of shop and farm owners.

Live-poultry salesman Nasruddin Nour said that the municipality continuously monitors his shop and that on a daily basis he sells 300 chickens and 50 pairs of pigeons.

Mohammed Hasan, another salesman, said that the new law has frightened people causing a great decrease in poultry demand.