After millions of chickens have been killed due to bird flu and other diseases over the past several months, poultry farmers in Indonesia are now anticipating greater losses caused by the decline in demand for Indonesian poultry products.

Demands for chicken meat have dropped significantly following reports that the bird flu now attacking Indonesia and many other countries and regions is the H5N1 variant, which can also kill humans.

"In Jakarta alone, demand for chicken meat has dropped by up to 40 percent," Eko Sandjojo, director of poultry company PT Sierad Produce Tbk., was quoted Friday by The Jakarta Post as saying.

The price for newly born, or day-old chicks (DOCs), has also dropped to 500 rupiah (5.8 US cents) from 1,500 rupiah (17.4 US cents) prior to the outbreak of the disease.

With national sales averaging 80 million DOCs per month, the industry is now losing some 80 billion rupiah (US$9.3 million) each month from DOC sales alone, said Eko.

Normally, the firm sells the DOCs to affiliated farmers and buys back the poultry after being raised by the farmers. Now, because of the very low price, rather than selling the DOCs, the firm asks affiliated farmers to raise the chickens for a fee and takes them back later to be processed.

Separately, Director of animal health at the Ministry of Agriculture Tri Satya Putri Naipospos H. said that there were some 5.5 million broiler chickens on the market that remained unsold.

"Normally, a broiler chicken is ready for sale after reaching the age of five weeks. As demand is declining, farmers now have no choice but to keep their chickens around and feed them for a longer period," she said.

Eko said that small farmers would suffer the most from the current crisis, while giant companies would survive for the next four or five months.

"Once they fail, it will be difficult for small farmers to revive their businesses. We are worried that once consumer demand is back to normal, only a few farmers will want to resume their business. This will result in a shortage of supply and we'll have to import more chicken," he said.