THE continuous death of chickens from various poultry farms in the country is a grave concern for farmers, as the ship that is carrying the chicken feeds is yet to dock at the Point Cruz port.
Reports reaching the Solomon Star this week said, the liner Sofrana Joinville has been waiting for its turn to dock outside the Honiara harbour, since its arrival a fortnight ago.
This has troubled local poultry farmers, as the wait for the chicken feed to reach their agent Vuvula Poultry is now unbearable, due to the delay.
It is now a serious issue for them, as the demand for their poultry products is high while the supply is very low.
Speaking to the Solomon Star yesterday, a female poultry farmer Nester Chasi said she could not bear the sad scene of the continuous death of her chickens.
She now lost more than a dozen of her chickens as a result of the delay.
“The continuous death of the chicken from my poultry farm is a serious concern for me and my poultry business.
“I have turned back a number of orders from my clients already and the situation is getting worst.
“I have not supplied eggs to my local clients as well, due to the shortage of the chicken feeds in the country,” the broiler farmer told the Solomon Star.
“Our production depends entirely on the feeds because we are dealing with living creatures here.
“The government must look seriously into the current problem that local poultry farmers are now facing,” Mrs Chasi added.
Mrs Chasi said, when she checked with Vuvula Poultry to see what was going on, they referred her to the Solomon Islands Ports Authority (SIPA).
She then had to forward her request to Ports Authority to push for the quick docking of the liner as the situation now gets worse, but her request was being turned down.
This week, a poultry farmer Kungalai David Alaha also told the Solomon Star, the current feed shortage has affected his chickens.
Mr Alaha claimed that poultry farmers in the country are finding it hard to cope with the feed shortage as their main supplier Vuvula poultry is running out of layer feed for the past two weeks.
Both farmers also said, in their 10 years of operations in the poultry business, this by far was the worse incident that they have encountered.
Responding to the claims, an officer from the department responsible at Ports Authority said that the liner will be docking at the wharf today, according to the ships docking schedule.
“The containers carrying the chicken feeds will likely be unloaded tomorrow (today) when the ship berths,” the officer said.
Solomon Star understands that, the congestions at the only Ports Authority wharf is one of the many issues that was affecting most business houses in the country, especially Honiara.
By RONALD TOITO’ONA
