ENG-1969 — Page 114

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PRIMARY PRODUCTION

passed into law this year to enable the Director of Marketing to charge commission either on the weight of vegetables or as a per- centage of the purchase price.

During the year, 1,511,476 piculs of vegetables, valued at $52,814,446 were sold through the organisation. This amounted to an overall average of 4,163 piculs of vegetables handled daily by the organisation.

ANIMAL INDUSTRIES

Since there is insufficient land for extensive grazing, pigs and poultry are the principal animals reared in the Colony for food. The pigs of Hong Kong are mostly crosses of local animals with exotic stock, and pure strains of the Chinese type are becoming less common.

To enable the farmer to utilise the prolific characteristic of the local breed with the greater food conversion ratio to meat of the exotic breeds, the Agriculture and Fisheries Department provides artificial insemination services, besides supplying breeding stock.

While locally produced pigs represent only 13 per cent of total pigs killed, the value of local pig production is some $30 million per annum, and proposals further to stimulate and expand produc- tion in this field will be implemented shortly.

The poultry industry which is worth some $81 million production value per annum is developing rapidly with units increasing in size and intensity. Farmers are adopting advanced methods of management adapted to local conditions with success, taking the process through from locally bred chicks to table birds, using both local breeds and imported hybrids. Duck rearing and pigeon breeding also represent an important part of the poultry industry.

While local cattle and buffaloes are kept mainly for work, imported Friesians are kept by dairies, the main one in isolation on Hong Kong Island and others in smaller groups outside Kowloon and in the New Territories. Regular tuberculin testing is carried out on all dairy animals.

While sporadic outbreaks of a mild type of foot-and-mouth disease (type O) and swine fever still occur, these have been kept