The economic impact of H5N1
Via Pakistan's The News, a report from Bangladesh: BD fixes maize export price at $600 tonne. Excerpt:
Bangladesh has hiked the export, price of maize to $600 per tonne to price the grain out of international markets and ensure its availability for domestic poultry feed, a senior government official said on Wednesday.
Bangladesh’s poultry farms are trying to revive after bird flu crippled the industry over the past year. No fresh outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain has been detected since April this year.
The export price move came after poultry feed producers, the main consumers, had demanded the ban in the wake of rising prices in local market.
Traders had started exporting maize, the main ingredient for poultry feed, to Malaysia and Indonesia, at around $128.40 a tonne.
“We have taken the decision to restrict exports and keep a stable local market,” C S Karim, an adviser to the interim government, told Reuters.
I know free-market theology opposes anything that limits trade, but in this case I don't see anything to complain about. If foreign demand for corn deprives Bangladeshi farmers of feed for their new chicken flocks, Bangladesh ends up dependent on foreign chickens at whatever price the foreign sellers choose.
