Yogyakarta poultry farmers to give away chicken to protest price drops

“Initially, we wanted to distribute only 2,500 chickens, but more breeders decided to take part, so the number rose to 5,800,” said Yogyakarta Poultry Association (Apayo) chairman Hari Wibowo as quoted by tempo.co.

Poultry farmers have complained about only being able to sell meat to distributors for Rp 8,000 (57 US cents) to Rp 10,000 per kilogram, roughly half of the production cost of Rp 18,500 per kg.

Meanwhile, farmers in Central Java have been forced to sell chicken meat on the road side, rather than to distributors, in the hopes of fetching higher prices. Their decision has also been an act of protest against the government’s lack of action to address their complaints.

“If production costs are Rp 18,500 per kg, chicken meat should be priced at Rp 20,000 per kg,” said chairman of the Central Java chapter of the Indonesian Poultry Association (Pinsar Indonesia) Parjuni on Sunday.

Small-scale poultry farmers have suffered significant losses because of price drops in the last six months, he said, adding that it had also resulted in overstock in chicken coops. He said in Central Java alone, over production reached 40 percent.

In response, the Agriculture Ministry’s Livestock and Animal Health Directorate General held a meeting on June 13, at which a decision was made to withdraw 30 percent of day-old chicks (DOC) from the market to address the oversupply of chicken meat.