Saudi Poultry Expansion Lags Needs

RIYADH - Feb 12/04 - SNS -- Poultry meat production estimates for Saudi Arabia remain around 530,000 metric tons (MT) for 2004, up 10,000 MT from 2003, which was also up 10,000 MT from 2002.

Though substantial imports are needed to meet the country's consumption requirements, the Saudi Ministry of Commerce recently banned imports of chicken meat and live birds from China, Vietnam, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, Thailand, and Pakistan due to the spread of bird flu in those countries. Imports were previously banned from Guinea and Ghana for the same reason.

On November 5, 2003, the agriculture ministry imposed a ban on the importation of live U.S. birds including day-old-chickens out of fear that they might be infected with the West Nile Virus. Those concerns have been amplified by the discovery of the H7 strain avian flu on two farms in Delaware and some live chicken markets in New Jersey state.

Currently, the Kingdom relies on imports to satisfy about 41% of its total domestic broiler meat consumption. Broiler meat imports, both whole and parts, are estimated at 390,000 MT for 2003 and projected at 395,000 MT for this year. Imports are overwhelmingly whole broilers and are all frozen.

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