Poultry industry suffered Rs eight billion loss due to floods

[Lahore_Real_Estate]

LAHORE (October 28, 2010) : Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA- Northern Zone) chairman, Abdul Hayee Mehta has said recent devastating floods have destroyed some 6000 poultry farms across the country giving loss of Rs 8 billion to the industry.

He further said that farmers were in the process of rehabilitation of these farms at self-help basis but the government should extend soft loans to the owners of these poultry farms.

The chairman PPA was speaking at a joint meeting of the Agricultural Journalists Association (AJA) and PPA here on Wednesday. Former Chairmen of the PPA Abdul Basit, Khalique Arshad, Raza Khursand, Dr Mustafa Kamal and many others were present. The meeting was convened to discuss the issues being faced by the poultry industry as well as consumers concerns.

Mehta also urged government to remove the regulatory duty imposed on import of maize so as to ensure its availability for the poultry feed. He stated that maize constitute 60 percent of the poultry feed. He said that if the availability of maize was not ensured it would push its prices up and ultimately its impact would be visible in the prices of chicken meat.

Former Chairman PPA, Abdul Basit said that at present the total production of maize was 3.6 million tons. He said that at present the total poultry feed production was 5.5 million tons per annum and it was consuming 2.18 million tons of maize. He said with ever-increasing feed production, it is estimated that it would soon reach to 8.2 million tons per annum and the industry would need maize almost equal to present maize production. He said that is why the poultry sector is demanding removal of regulatory duty. He claimed that it would not hurt the local farmers as the industry was not demanding removal of regulatory duty due to prices but just to ensure availability of maize for poultry feed industry.

Mehta also urged the government not to include the poultry sector in the proposed Refined General Sales Tax (RGST) regime as it is a food item and a source to provide quality and cheap protein to the masses.

The chairman PPA said poultry industry was governed by the free market principles. He said that the prices of the chicken meat were determined by the gap between supply and demand.

Responding to allegations of cartelisation, poultry industry experts complained that Competition Commission of Pakistan (CCP) was not willing to hear the industry viewpoint. They argued that recent increase in the price of chicken meat was only because of demand and supply gap. They dispelled the impression that some politicians were manipulating white poultry prices. PPA Former Chairman Raza Mahmood Khursand explained that PML-N, PML-Q and PPP leaders had stakes in poultry industry but their share in poultry trade was negligible. None of them could manipulate market as no one had more than 300,000 birds at one time while the domestic consumption was around 3 million birds per day.

Replying to a query, PPA scientist, Dr M Mustafa Kamal said that it was a misconception that broiler chicken was given hormones for faster growth and it was harmful for human consumption. It was the genetic potential of this breed; he added and said that the standard of feed formulation was the same as was being observed internationally.