Poultry prices in Moldova increase sharply

Over the past few months, the cost of chicken meat in Moldova has risen by about 20%, and according to manufacturers this is not the end of price increases for poultry.

The price is rising due to heavy increases in the cost of raw materials, the chairman of Moldova’s Association of Poultry Producers, Nicholas Kovasha stated.

“The ultimate price of chicken meat is formed mainly out of three components – the price of biological raw materials, feed and petroleum. Increases in the cost of each of these items has led to an increase of market prices for poultry products,” Kovasha said.

He also explained that biological raw materials are eggs and day-old chicks, which the local producers import, respectively, from Romania and Hungary. Growing poultry from imported material results in a much lower rate of mortality among birds rather when the producers grow it from the local biological material. However the price for biomaterial from Romania and Hungary also rose in recent months.

“The cost of petroleum products also rose. I don’t want even want to talk about the cost of corn, soybean and sunflower after the current drought. Even if the manufacturer only increases the selling price a little, when the product reaches the end customer its price raises significantly,” he added.

Also from January 1, 2013 a new bill shall come into force which will increase the VAT on poultry products from current 8% to 20%. According to manufacturers this will further increase the market cost of their products.

“According to some experts, the rise of poultry product prices in the retail networks after the increase of VAT is unavoidable. We can be sure that this situation will be used by the importers, and that, as a result, gradually kill the local manufacturer. We will see a dramatic increase in the volume of contraband chicken” concludes information portal, News Moldova.

Source: Vladislav Vorotnikov