Due to a fall in demand over the past two months, chicken farmers have been forced to lower prices for broilers from RD$9.10 to RD$7.85 per pound. Authorities say that there are as many as 500,000 excess units for the marketplace. At Freeze-it Dominicana, a local cold-storage facility, there are over one million broilers in storage at a cost of RD$1.3 million a month and there are 300,000 more birds scheduled to be processed there in the next few days. Wilfredo Cabrera, the head of the National Poultry Commission, told the press that this situation is hurting the small and medium producers and that meetings are being held to find possible solutions. Cabrera said that discussions are taking place with the National Price Stabilization Institute (INESPRE) as a possible outlet for the excess poultry, as well as the reduction of new broilers at the farm level. Cabrera said that most retailers would not lower prices but that some farmers are selling directly to the consumers and passing on the lower prices, although this represents a loss of RD$1.25 for each pound sold. National consumption is calculated at 11.5 million birds a month and 110 million eggs.