The Executive Council has endorsed revised ex-gratia payment packages for live poultry farmers, wholesalers and transporters who surrender their licences or market tenancies and cease operations, the Health, Welfare & Food Bureau says.

The revisions are part of the Government's drive to reduce avian influenza outbreaks in Hong Kong. The original packages were announced on March 14.

Having considered farmers' views, and to provide better incentive for licence surrender, the bureau has enhanced the packages by assuming the farms are fully enclosed and by using the lowest depreciation factor for farm structure.

Also included in the formula is a component accounting for the farmers' capital investment on biosecurity facilities demanded by the Government for the purpose of preventing the introduction of avian flu viruses to farms.

The cap on the sum payable has been raised from $3 million to $4 million.

For live poultry wholesalers, payment rates for different stall categories will be enhanced 40% to 60% to encourage tenancy surrender at the Cheung Sha Wan Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market and the Western Wholesale Food Market.

One-off grant

The bureau will offer a one-off grant of $18,000 to each affected poultry farm, wholesale and transport worker. The amount is equivalent to the maximum amount receivable under the prevailing retraining and financial assistance package for poultry retail workers.

A worker is only entitled to the grant once, even if they rejoin the trade and their subsequent employers choose to join surrender schemes.

For those still wishing to participate in retraining, the bureau will help them apply to the Employee Retraining Board or other relevant agencies.

It is also proposed to apply the same arrangements to retail workers who become unemployed because of the surrender scheme but have yet to receive retraining.

Ex-gratia payment

As the surrender schemes will inevitably affect the businesses of some live poultry transporters, the Government will also provide an ex-gratia payment of $50,000 per vehicle to transporters surrendering tenancies for parking at markets.

This will enable the affected transporters to upgrade or convert their vehicles for conveying chilled or frozen products or for other business operations.

Other transporters without tenancies to surrender will not be eligible for the payment, but are still eligible for a loan of $50,000 for the same purposes.

The bureau said after receiving the payment or loan, the transporters concerned will not be allowed to enter the Wholesale Markets to convey live poultry again, nor will they be entitled to any further Government assistance for live poultry operations.

The Government will put in place effective measures to prevent abuse.

As implementation of the schemes will have a significant impact on local supply of live poultry, and the business operations of retailers, the bureau will extend the application deadline for the surrender scheme.

Apart from the $14 million loan for live poultry transporters without any monthly tenancies to surrender, the total amount of funding required for the above schemes is estimated to be about $342.1 million.

The revised packages will be discussed in the Legislative Council on June 14.