The national government will cover 50 percent of the damages incurred by chicken farmers in Yamaguchi Prefecture who cannot ship their eggs due to a quarantine imposed after an outbreak of bird flu at a farm there.
The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry said Tuesday that 137.4 million yen has been set aside as compensation money.
However, the decision was immediately criticized by the Yamaguchi Prefectural Government, which has already declared it will purchase all the eggs affected by the quarantine measure.
The prefecture said 17 farmers have been affected by the quarantine, which covers a 30-km radius from the Win-Win farm where a bird flu outbreak was confirmed in mid-January.
About 1 million birds are kept at the farms, where they lay about 900,000 eggs per day.
Prefectural officials said roughly 20 million of the eggs are already in storage.
The farmers had been demanding full compensation for the eggs, which are expected to be processed into powder or liquid form to make other products.
Under the ministry's proposal, the government will pay 50 percent of the gap between the market price for raw eggs and those for processing, as well as half of the storage cost.