Yen The hill chickens are tied with leg straps and stamps of origin at the Yen The Green Agricultural Cooperative.

Standardising new chick flocks

At this time, apart from maintaining chicken flocks for domestic consumption, chicken farming households in Yen The are actively raising new chicken herds to ensure supplies for the market during the Lunar New Year festival. The family of Nguyen Van Bay in Trai Dang hamlet, Dong Ky commune, recently sold 700 chickens, earning over 10 million VND (440 USD) in profit. 

At present, his family is caring for more than 1,500 chickens to raise incomes. The results were due to an ongoing project on sustainable hill chicken farming for 2016-2020. Accordingly, instead of raising low-output cross-bred sugarcane chickens, he received technical training and funds to buy chicks and bioproducts for breeding cross-bred bantam chickens.

Besides Bay’s family, 13 households in Trai Dang and Dong Lan hamlets in Dong Ky commune also received support to raise over 10,000 chickens for trade, earning 15-17 million VND (660 – 750 USD) in profit per 1,000 heads. 

In order to create a chain of farming, processing and consumption, the Yen The Green Agricultural Cooperative was established in early July. It has so far spent more than 3 billion VND (132,000 USD) on building and operating a slaughterhouse and packaging facility with a capacity of 3,000 heads per day. 

The cooperative already signed contracts with local farmers to buy more than 60,000 chickens. The purchase price is fixed at 68,000 – 70,000 VND (2.9 – 3.1 USD) per kg, 10,000 – 20,000 VND (0.44 – 0.88 USD) higher than the market’s prices. In return, chickens are tied with leg straps and stamps of origin, making it easier for consumers to verify under each household’s code.

Implementing synchronous measures

To develop the trademark of Yen The hill chickens, the district People’s Committee has carried out synchronous and effective measures since 2016, notably the sustainable hill chicken farming development scheme for 2016-2020. 

Accordingly, the district People’s Committee allocated over 2.5 billion VND (110,000 USD) from the State budget to open training courses, transfer technology; expand and improve the quality of chick production establishments; guide farmers to follow VietGAHP standards; build concentrated slaughterhouses; step up trade promotion and seek stable consumption markets. It has also encouraged investment attraction, established businesses, cooperatives and cooperative working groups to spread the trademark of Yen The hill chickens.

In addition to the policy of raising cross-bred bantam chickens, the district People’s Committee has partnered with the National Institute of Animal Sciences (Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development) to study VP34 chicken breed which is healthy, grows fast and has tasty meat. Until now, the breed has been successfully cross-bred. Units are preparing for breeding stock, farming process and relevant legal procedures. 

Chairman of the district People’s Committee Vu Tri Hai affirmed that standardising breeding chicks is important but due to the lack of close supervision, farming households mostly bought chicks of unclear origin, leading to uneven quality. So far, standardised breeds and good quality control will promote the sustainable development of the brand name.

Apart from improving the quality of chicks and products, the district People’s Committee actively popularised the brand name and helped farming households join fairs, exhibitions to introduce products. 

In particular, the provincial People’s Committee also agreed with the district authorities’ proposal and asked the provincial Department of Industry and Trade to jointly hold a conference to promote consumption of Yen The hill chickens by in late October. This will be an opportunity for the locality to seek partners, connect supply-demand, and establish close and stable connectivity chain between farmers and the markets.

Van Thuong