Press Releases
Government increases supply of local live chickens for tomorrow
A spokesman for the Food and Health Bureau (FHB) said today (January 12)
that the second-day operation of Ta Kwu Ling Checkpoint ran smoothly. Upon
consideration, the Government decided to slightly increase the supply of
local live chickens for the market tomorrow (January 13) from around 4 000
today to a maximum of 4 800. The actual quantity of supply will depend on
the decision and specific arrangements of individual poultry farms and
wholesalers.
The supply of live chickens tomorrow will come from nine poultry farms,
involving eight wholesalers and 13 trucks. The wholesalers will make
arrangements for transferal of chicken consignments to connecting vehicles
at the checkpoint for distribution to 72 retail outlets in Hong Kong Island,
Kowloon and the New Territories.
The spokesman pointed out that since the checkpoint came into operation, the
Government has been closely monitoring and continuously reviewing its
operation procedures to ensure smooth running of the checkpoint, keep the
environmental hygiene and biosecurity measures intact, and minimise the
impacts on nearby residents.
In response to nearby residents' concern on noise nuisance, the Agriculture,
Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) today met the concerned
residents again to listen to their views. The AFCD conducted a site
inspection jointly with officers of the Architectural Services Department
and decided that on top of the existing measures, additional noise
insulating canvas would be installed in the checkpoint to further reduce the
noise impacts on residents during the operating hours of the checkpoint.
In addition, the AFCD held a meeting with local live chicken wholesalers and
transporters this morning to review the operation of the checkpoint in the
past two days. At the meeting, the AFCD solicited again the cooperation of
the trade to continue supplying local live chickens via the Ta Kwu Ling
Checkpoint with incremental increases in the light of experience, under the
prerequisites of safeguarding public health and minimising the impacts on
nearby residents.
The spokesman said the Government will maintain communication with the trade
and representatives of Ta Kwu Ling residents to coordinate on the quantity
of live chickens supplied via the checkpoint and the number of vehicles
involved every day, as well as to take their views on the operation of the
checkpoint into account for the purpose of making adjustments accordingly.
Reiterating that the Ta Kwu Ling Checkpoint is a contingency arrangement for
the local live poultry trade, the spokesman said the checkpoint aims to
facilitate the local live poultry trade to deliver live poultry to retail
markets and minimise their loss when Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale
Poultry Market has to cease operation. In the past two days, more than 10
local poultry farms delivered over 7 000 chickens to the retail outlets
under this arrangement to avoid over-stocking.
The spokesman said based on the operation of the checkpoint in the past two
days, it is considered that the operation has been generally smooth and
related requests from the trade and local residents have by and large been
addressed. The Government will continue to closely monitor and review the
operation of the checkpoint to ensure smoother operation and to minimise
nuisance to residents nearby.
Ends/Monday, January 12, 2015
Issued at HKT 20:41
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