Poultry Certification for Pro-Poor HPAI Risk Reduction

Abstract

This working paper describes the policy implications of a pilot study for promoting pro-poor H5N1 risk reduction by using the demand side of poultry markets to achieve higher food safety standards. In this way, smallholders can contribute voluntarily to the global commons of disease prevention, improve their livelihoods, and displace costly and inefficient government interventions in disease surveillance and control. Modelled on organic, fair-trade, and other speciality product marketing strategies, this pilot study is intended to combine risk management features with product quality development, correcting for negative surveillance/control effects, and opening the potential for private incentives to improve product quality and incomes for all participants in food value chains. This pilot study targeted markets in the outer districts of Ha Noi, as well as households around these markets. A questionnaire survey provided detailed information about the dynamics and key actors in the local live poultry supply chain. A second component of the study assessed the feasibility of establishing a private certification system for individual birds in the Vietnamese poultry value chain. Based on the study, policy recommendations are made