Poultry Slaughtering Businesses Ready to be Regulated

JAKARTA, KOMPAS – In response to the policy of the Provincial Government of DKI Jakarta to close 1,000 poultry slaughtering facilities to control the spread of bird flu, poultry slaughtering business owners and poultry carcass distribution agencies in Jakarta declared that they are ready to be regulated. But, housing for employees and increase of operational cost are unavoidable. “We will follow the policy even though in truth we are very troubled and burdened. The consequence of poultry slaughter centralization is increase in operational cost. In turn we have to send some of our employees back home [stop working] and raise the price of poultry carcasses,” said Abudin Sutanto (53), an agent and owner of a broiler chicken slaughter facility in Block III of Senen Market.

Agents at the level of Abudin commonly have 30 to 40 employees. So far they could reduce the operational cost because they are located close to customers. In Senen market, there are at least 8 agents for poultry carcass. In a day, each agent distributes at least 1,500 chickens. They supply to other markets such as Pluit, Pademangan, Pasar Baru, and Karang Anyar. They also sell to small vendors.
Sugiarno (56), a man who have sold live chickens for many years in Cempaka Putih market in Central Jakarta, added that he too will loose his customers. His income will decrease and he even could go bankrupt. Abudin added that centralization of poultry slaughter also will not be effective to eradicate bird flu if supervision of poultry traffic from supplying areas to Jakarta is still lacking from the animal health side. Poultry health inspection posts are also said to be not maximal.
“All aspects should be of attention, supervised and immediate action should be taken. All should not be burdened only to slaughtering facility owners or agents,” said Abudin.
Previously, the provincial government of DKI Jakarta targeted that in 2010 there will be no more live poultry sold in traditional markets. Head of the Livestock, Fisheries, and Marine Service Office of DKI Jakarta, Edy Setiarto, said that starting 2008 they will start a program to eliminate selling of live poultry in Jakarta.
Unlike the agents, Director of PD Darma Jaya, Lilian Sari, acting as manager of the Cakung and Pulo Gadung Poultry Slaughterhouse said they are ready to facilitate the slaughtering of poultry. Every person or agent will only be charged 500 rupiahs per bird if they use Cakung and Pulo Gadung Slaughterhouses.
“With that cheap cost, they have the right to use facilities such as the slaughter machine, dressing tables, and poultry cages. The Cakung slaughterhouse has the capacity to slaughter 100,000 chickens per day, the Pulo Gadung slaughterhouse has the capacity to slaughter 40,000 chickens per day, while the new slaughterhouse currently build in Rawa Kepiting in Cakung will have the capacity to slaughter 75,000 chickens per day,” said Lilian Sari.
But, Lilian admitted the slaughterhouses’ capacity is still not enough to meet the demand in Jakarta. Even just for fast food restaurants, they need 500,000 to 600,000 chickens per day. Therefore, administrations of every government level must help monitor and prevent slaughtering of poultry in residential areas. (NEL/ARN/*)
Source : Kompas