The chicken industry in east Africa particularly Uganda has suffered a major blow with recent reports of an outbreak of the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), a bird-flu which can affect both birds and humans. This has prompted the Kenyan authorities to temporarily ban the importation of live poultry and related products from Uganda into Kenya.

In a move to protect its 32 million chickens and multi-million dollar industry, Kenyan authorities have acted by immediately placing veterinary and health officers on high alert to ensure that no chickens and poultry products get into the country until the situation has calmed down in Uganda.

All permits allowing the importation of chickens and poultry products into Kenya have also been canceled with immediate effect by the Kenyan government. Kenya also requested Uganda not to issue export permits of poultry and related products that will be intended for the Kenyan market.

The effects of this ban on the importation of Chickens into Kenya from Uganda are already showing as traders in the sector now fear that they will run out of stock as Uganda is one of their main source of chickens and poultry products.

Prices of poultry products have also started to go up following the ban and with scarcity starting to settle in the sector could face another crisis if the high demand cannot be satisfied in time. An egg used to cost Sh10 but it has gone up to Sh15 and the wholesale price of one crate of eggs used to cost Sh250 but has risen to Sh300.

With both countries feeling the heat and counting their losses, Kenya imports an average of more than Sh 40 million chickens and poultry products every year which also means that Uganda will miss out on the revenue it gets from exports to Kenya.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *