Poultry industry under pressure

Subsidies

To ease the heavy burden on breeders, the regional governments of Shanghai and Zhejiang province have offered limited subsidies.

The Shanghai government issued a one-off subsidy on April 10, paying certified poultry breeders to keep their birds at their farms. Breeders will be paid 3 yuan for each egg chicken, 2 yuan for each meat chicken, 2 yuan for each pigeon and 0.20 yuan for each quail.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Zhejiang's provincial government announced that it will provide a similar level of subsidy to local large-scale poultry breeders.

"It is essential for the government to offer insurance support for the breeders, not only in terms of buying related insurance products, but also setting up a stabilization fund to insulate the breeders from huge losses if outbreaks occur in the future," said Wang Xujin, a professor at the insurance department of the school of economics at Beijing Technology and Business University, according to the news website Caixin.

Wang urged the government to launch a poultry storage system and subsidy measures to avoid sudden price fluctuations for poultry products.

However, there is a certain level of optimism in the industry.