You are here: HomeAfrica2020 07 20Article 365914

Africa News of Monday, 20 July 2020

Source: www.mynigeria.com

COVID-19: Ethiopian farmers forced to kill thousands of chicks

File photo File photo

Ethiopian poultry farmers were forced to destroyed hundreds of thousands of chicks after COVID-19 pandemic caused a collapse in demand from the hotel sector.

Hotels in Addis Ababa to reduce operations or even to close, removing a major source of demand for poultry products.

Reuters reports that one of the biggest suppliers of poultry products in Addis Ababa said it had to kill nearly 650,000 chicks in five weeks over May and June and estimated millions had been destroyed country-wide.

“We also had to actually pull some eggs from our hatchery, so that we could destroy them as eggs instead of chicks,” Fseha Tesfu, in charge of marketing at EthioChicken, told Reuters.

The impact is extremely disrupting for the sector and has potentially devastating social consequences in a country where Finance Minister Ahmed Shide said in May nearly 15 million people could need government help because of the pandemic.

“This sector used to employ a vast group of society in different regions of the country, whether it is the youth or women, in all sorts of age groups,” Meba Gabriel Estifanos, a veterinarian, who also owns a small farm in Addis Ababa, said.