Mississippi poultry exports slip
Bird flu has had a major effect on Mississippi poultry exports, resulting in the estimated value of the state’s largest commodity down 10%.
In 2006, poultry saw an estimated value of almost $2 billion. This is a decrease of 10.4% from the $2.2 billion value seen in 2005. Broilers saw the biggest decline, down almost 12% to $1.8 billion from the $2.1 billion in 2005.
Tim Chamblee, poultry specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service says that this has been a challenging year.
The biggest slow-down was importing nations’ fears of an avian influenza outbreak. The US has no cases of the disease, but some countries ended all chicken imports.
“We’ve had an oversupply of chickens. If you look at placement data from the end of November, we’ve only placed 92% as many birds as the previous year,” said Chamblee.
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