Ramadhan and the scarcity of broiler DOC’s

Poultry farmers in Indonesia are currently facing the problem of a scarce supply of DOC (Day Old Chicks) of broilers.

The effect of this scarcity is leading to an increase in on-farm live bird prices and then broiler carcass prices. The price of broiler carcass in the wet market and big retails in Jakarta has jumped from IDR 25,000 to IDR 45,000. This increase happened when Ramadhan started in mid August.

Some poultry farmers in West Java said that the cause of DOC supply’s scarcity is because of the rising number of new poultry farmers. These farmers just take advantage of the Ramadhan month only, meaning that they are just temporary poultry farmers. They believe that the price in the Ramadhan month and the concluding Eid ul-Fitr will be high. Consumer behaviour in Indonesia, specifically muslim in celebrating Eid ul-Fitr, means that poultry meat comsuption is higher during this time. In conclusion these farmers will affect the normal supply of DOC of broiler chicken.

Besides that, Djody Hario Seno – Head of Broiler Association (PPUB) said that because of the scarcity, many brokers of DOC of broiler chicken also contribute to increasing the price of broiler DOC’s. “In normal days, the price of broiler DOC per chick is just around IDR 4,000, but because of the scarcity, the DOC price of broiler increases by around IDR 7,000 per chick. The reality is poultry farmers still pay the high price in order to fill their farm capacity. They can’t stop to do farming because their main job is farming,” he explained.

**Table 1. The potency of broiler production per week in average (from January to** **July 2010)**
Month	Production (million chicks)
January	26.6
February	26.5
March	26.5
April	27.8
May	27.9
June	29.2
July	29.6

Source: Ministry of Agriculture of Indonesia

Head of poultry breeding companies association (GPPU), Mr. Krissantono, added that some diseases such as Avian Influenza also affect the production in some breeding farms. “So that the DOC supply of broiler is unbalanced,” he said.

To avoid financial loss because of the scarcity of DOC of broiler chicken, poultry farmers tend to reduce their population in-farm by an average of 30%. “If all poultry farmers do this trick, the price of broiler carcass will increase highly. It’s according to the law of supply and demand,” said Seno.