Live poultry trade buyout plan to proceed

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Earlier, the bureau had announced it would extend an ex gratia payment offer to poultry farmers, wholesalers and transporters if this 85% minimum were reached.

As of 8pm last night, the Food & Environmental Hygiene Department had received 339 applications from live poultry retailers to permanently surrender the permission to sell live poultry and receive relevant compensation.

These applicants comprise 178 market tenants and 161 fresh provision shop licensees, representing just 72.4% of the 468 eligible applicants.

"We used the 85% as an indicator from the trade. They were adamant that they could not survive if this 'no-chicken-overnight' policy was imposed on them. But it seems in the last three weeks that this policy is working quite well and also the market is functioning quite effectively. I think that might be a reason why more people are willing to stay," Dr Chow said.

Up until June, retailers were allowed to keep unsold poultry in the markets overnight. This practice was ended following a still untraced outbreak of bird flu in markets in mid-June.

Still, he noted the number of poultry, in particular chicken, in Hong Kong, on a daily basis would plummet from the pre-June number of about 40,000 to 11,000 -15,000.

Substantial reduction in risk

"This is a substantial reduction of live chicken in our markets, and also we've substantially reduced the risk of transmission of avian influenza to humans in our markets," he stressed.

"With that in mind, we've decided to go ahead with the ex gratia payment for the existing 339 applicants. At the same time, we feel that, with the requests from some of the trade, that they need more time to consider.

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