Press Releases
More live chicken supply from the Mainland during Mid-Autumn Festival
The ceiling on daily imports of live chicken from the Mainland would be lifted
for three days (September 15 to 17) before the Mid-Autumn Festival to meet the
surge in public demand during the festive period, a spokesman for the Health,
Welfare and Food Bureau said today (September 7).
According to the consensus reached with the live poultry trade during the Tuen
Ng Festival this year, representatives of the trade had promised to strictly
observe the public health condition when the ceiling on the daily imports of
live chicken from the Mainland was lifted and to ensure there would be no
overstocking of live chickens in the retail outlets during this period, the
spokesman said.
"If the trade violates or fails to observe these conditions, we will not
consider relaxing the import quantity of live chickens in future traditional
festivities," the spokesman stressed.
Furthermore, he said, that to safeguard public health the Government might
cancel the temporary lifting of the ceiling if there was an imminent threat of
avian influenza.
The special arrangement will end on September 18. Thereafter, import quantity
will revert to the current level of 30,000 live chickens per day.
The Government will step up monitoring of the market situation during the
three-day period when the ceiling is lifted.
Ends/Wednesday, September 7, 2005
Issued at HKT 17:41
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