Poultry reparations insufficient, say rights groups

Rights groups in Egypt criticised a government strategy to compensate poultry farmers and sellers, hard hit by the H5N1 avian virus two weeks ago, for fowl destroyed in a recent prevention drive. Cases of the virus have emerged among birds in 14 of 26 Egyptian governorates, although there have been noincidences reported among humans so far. “We believe the economic crisis poultry farmers are enduring will by no means be eased in the long term by the government’s current strategy,” said Wagih Abdel Aziz, director of the Cairo-based Southern Centre for Human Rights Studies. Shortly after the crisis was announced, the government offered to buy healthy poultry from farmers en masse, and to compensate farmers culling their fowl. Cairo further declared that taxes and debts owed by chicken farmers would be cancelled, in an attempt to offset mounting damage to the industry. But no compensation package as such was offered to cover for financial duress the farmers are undergoing. One million farm birds have been culled across the country over the past week. While farm culls have taken place in 14 governorates and the city of Luxor, a nation-wide domestic cull was ordered last week. Observers opine that the official response has been inadequate. “Considering that this industry employs two million people and is worth US $3 million [annually],” noted Abdel Aziz, “it’s extremely worrying that there’s no long-term economic plan for poultry farmers and sellers.” The government denies claims that it has mishandled the crisis, pointing to relative calm among the citizenry despite the appearance of the much-hyped virus. “While new incidences [of the virus] were occurring at a very fast pace last week, we’ve seen a significant decrease of reports this week,” said Mona Mehris, an official at the agriculture ministry’s Institute for Animal Health. Mehris went on to point out that government awareness campaigns had shown positive results, and that – for the most part – poultry industry workers were satisfied with the way the crisis was being managed. “We haven’t received many complaints,” she added. “And the fact that there hasn’t been a single incidence of avian flu among humans is a good sign.” Nevertheless, about 600 poultry workers demonstrated in central Cairo on Wednesday, protesting their dire economic situation as well as the government response to their grievances. Protesters further demanded that retail poultry shops be reopened, following a government ban on sales of non-frozen poultry. Also in light of last week’s massive culling of fowl in governorates where the virus had been confirmed in chickens. For the moment, the government does not seem intent on meeting their demands. “We’re still monitoring the situation closely to see when it would be safe to allow the poultry industry to start functioning again,” said Mehris. Despite energetic government campaigns urging citizens to eat frozen chicken, which is safe when cooked at temperatures above 70 degrees Celsius, the poultry shortage and consumer panic have combined to deal the industry an unprecedented blow. Prior to the crisis, chicken accounted for 60 percent of meat consumed domestically. The price of one kilogramme of chicken is now at a paltry $0.08; the price of red meat has remained stable, meanwhile, and the price of fish has gone up by about $1 per kilogramme.