Bahrain stop importing Saudi chicken products

Bahrain’s poultry traders have stopped buying Saudi products because of the rise in prices of chicken and eggs manufactured in Saudi Arabia. Bahraini traders say their local products are not as high as the price of Saudi products, Al-Eqtisadiah daily reported on Tuesday. “The price of chicken produced in Bahrain is stable and sold at only 1 Bahraini Dinar, which is equivalent to SR 10. On the other hand, the egg price has reached 2 Bahraini Dinars (equivalent to SR 20) for a tray,” Mustafa Al-Saeed, a trader in Bahrain, said. The lower price of chicken is maintained in Bahrain because of the government subsidy to keep it steady and uniform, he said. The price of a kilogram of imported chicken in Saudi Arabia was SR 13.95 and of locally produced chicken SR 13.50, according to market sources two days ago. He added that the price of Saudi chicken was high because of the rise in the cost of chicken feed production with imported components such as soybean and millet, the prices of which have shot up in the international market. However, a source said the price of frozen chicken is likely to be hiked by 9 percent from next month. It is also reported that Bahraini and Saudi chicken are in high demand in Bahrain, unlike Thai and Brazilian products. Meanwhile, poultry manufacturers in the United Arab Emirates threatened to close their farms unless their government stepped in to stop their losses because of the sharp rise in the import of chicken feed. They said the government did not allow them to increase prices to compensate their losses. On the other hand, the supermarkets sell the farm products at profitable prices, the farmers pointed out. Saudi Minister of Agriculture Fahd Balghunaim said on an earlier occasion that the rise of poultry price in the country was linked to the rise in the price of chickenfeed components such as millet and wheat. Millet accounts for 65 percent of the feed. Arab news