Chicken's price went down and the farmers are not having it. (Image via The Daily Meal)

Losing Rp200 million annually, Pinsar Indonesia to protest to the government

The chicken farmers, members of the Indonesian Poultry Association (Pinsar Indonesia), will hold a demonstration in front of the Ministry of Agriculture building on the upcoming Wednesday. The farmers claimed that the Agriculture Ministry is choking Rp3.4 billion out of them.

The demonstration will address the policy in relation to the reduction of chicks. The head of Pinsar Central Java, Parjuni, explained that when the price of chicken went down last year, his party already asked the Agriculture Ministry to reduce the chick supply to the field. There were too many chicks in the market; hence, the price was suppressed, harming the farmers’ interest.

Speaking on Monday, Parjuni revealed that the Ministry agreed to reduce the chicks by 7 million. However, wrong to his words, the Ministry only cut 5 million. It led to an excessive amount of live chickens in the market, and the price went beneath the cost of goods sold (COGS).

Currently, the price of chicken is around Rp13,500 – Rp14,500/kg; meanwhile, the COGS is around Rp17,500 – Rp18,000/kg. Due to this, the chicken farmer had to lose Rp200 million per month for the past 17 months.

Initially, Parjuni hoped that the price would go up during Christmas to New Year’s Day. Nonetheless, the price went down since post-Christmas Day until today. Director-General of Livestock and Animal Health under Agriculture Ministry, I Ketut Diarmita, could not be reached for comment due to being ill.

Source: https://bit.ly/2ucXRKa