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LCQ5: Buyout package for live poultry trade
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    Following is a question by the Hon Vincent Fang and a written reply by the Secretary for Food and Health, Dr York Chow, in the Legislative Council today (July 9):

Question:

    Some workers in the live poultry trade have relayed to me that in June this year the Food and Health Bureau proposed to the live poultry trade an option of permanent cessation of business and offered a fairly attractive buyout package to live poultry retailers.  In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:

(a) whether it has assessed the respective numbers of trades, operators and employees, including monthly-rated employees and temporary employees, in the entire supply chain of live poultry to be affected when the live poultry trade ceases business permanently;

(b) of the number of government posts the duties of which are related to the supply chain of live poultry and the government departments to which they belong; whether such posts will be deleted following the total cessation of business of the live poultry trade; if so, of the number of posts to be deleted and the government departments involved; if not, how the work of the government officials concerned will be deployed; whether the scope of duties of the Agricultural, Fisheries and Conservation Department will thus be substantially reduced, and have to merge with the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department; and

(c) whether the local poultry farmers have rented government land at present; if they have, how the Government will deal with such land after the live poultry trade ceases business permanently; whether the Government will accept the trade's proposal to convert the Cheung San Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market into a chilled poultry wholesale centre, and how it will make use of the live poultry retail stalls in the government markets?

Reply:

Madam President,

    The detection of avian influenza virus in environmental samples collected from retail markets last month proves the effectiveness of our preventive and surveillance measures.  But this also indicates the need to further strengthen our preventive efforts by promptly implementing precautionary measures against avian influenza at various levels, in particular the retail level, of the supply chain of live chicken.  In this connection, we have put in place the requirement of no overnight stocking of live chicken since July 2.

    We understand that some traders are concerned about the prospect of the live poultry trade and hope the Government would come up with a buyout package.  To address their concern, we offered a buyout package to local farmers, wholesalers, retailers, transporters and affected workers in late June.  Our proposal submitted to the Finance Committee of the Legislative Council for funding approval involved an amount exceeding $1.1 billion.  Our reply to the three parts of the question is as follows:

(a) As at June 2008, there are 52 poultry farmers (including 50 chicken farmers and 2 pigeon farmers), 71 wholesalers, 469 retailers and some 250 transporters in the live poultry trade of Hong Kong.  The number of affected workers is about 2 550.

(b) As to current regulation of the live poultry trade, the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) is responsible for the management of the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Poultry Wholesale Market, surveillance on local farms and conduct of laboratory tests for avian flu.  The Food and Environmental Hygiene Department (FEHD) oversees the management of live poultry retail outlets (i.e. live poultry market stalls and fresh provision shops selling live poultry) and enforcement of import control.

    According to the information provided by the trade, most of the retailers will choose to wind up their business, whilst some may still wish to stay in the trade.  Some farmers, wholesalers and transporters may also choose to stay in the trade.  As there is still time before the deadline for the trade to consider the buyout package, we at the present moment do not know how many people in the trade will accept the offer in the end.  Hence, we can only assess the manpower implications of the buyout package for the Government departments at the next stage.

    However, the FEHD staff responsible for inspecting live poultry market stalls and fresh provision shops are also concurrently carrying out other environmental hygiene duties.  Besides, the FEHD needs to retain manpower for inspecting the few market stalls and the fresh provision shops which choose to continue the retail business to ensure compliance with the requirement of 'no overnight stocking of live chickens'.  If any live poultry market stalls and fresh provision shops switch to the sale of chilled/frozen meat or food, they also come under FEHD's regulation.  As for the AFCD staff responsible for the surveillance of local farms, they are concurrently carrying out duties such as the surveillance of backyard poultry farming and animal trader licensing.  The implementation of the buyout package, therefore, will not significantly reduce the workload of the FEHD and AFCD staff.

(c) Of the 52 poultry farmers in Hong Kong, 21 are operating on government land.  If they choose to leave the trade, the AFCD will notify the District Lands Offices in the respective districts to follow up on the use of the government land concerned.

    The Cheung San Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market is a wholesale market for live poultry trade.  If it is no longer used by the trade, the property concerned will be, under the normal procedure, returned to the Lands Department for other land use purpose.  At present, the Government does not require the chilled poultry wholesale business to operate at specific locations.  Traders are free to decide the mode of operation and location of business as long as they have obtained a fresh provision shop licence as required by laws.  There is no need for the Government to grant land for the chilled poultry wholesale business.

    As at July this year, 90 live poultry stalls in FEHD markets are allowed to sell chilled poultry as well.  If tenants of the other 170 live poultry stalls wish to switch to the sale of chilled poultry, they may submit their applications as soon as possible.  The FEHD will provide them with appropriate assistance in relation to the tenancy of the market stalls and process their applications promptly.  Moreover, subject to actual demand in the market, the FEHD will also consider letting out the existing vacant live poultry stalls for the chilled poultry trade.



Ends/Wednesday, July 9, 2008
Issued at HKT 14:33

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