Curb on exports to Afghanistan: Punjab poultry industry under severe financial crisis

Punjab poultry industry has come under severe financial crisis after restrictions on Punjab poultry exports to Afghanistan causing a daily loss of Rs 400 million to the farmers, convenor LCCI chicken export committee Abdul Basit said here on Wednesday.
Punjab Poultry Association is filing an appeal in the Supreme Court for removal of these restrictions, he said. Talking to Business Recorder here on Wednesday Basit, who is also a farmer President Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA), said that after hovering around Rs 120 per kg price of live birds, the price has dropped to Rs 80 per kg during the past fortnight, causing a loss of Rs 40 per kg to the poultry farmers.
He said poultry industry supplies 6 million kgs of chicken load daily to consumers. The farmers' cost of production is, at least, Rs 120 per kg whereas they are being forced to sell this perishable commodity at Rs 80 per kg. This is causing at least Rs 240 million loss to the heavily invested and job providers industry.
Basit said that price of one day old broiler has crashed to Rs 2 from Rs 35 causing a loss of Rs 33 per chick to the hatcheries which has stopped to produce one-day birds . Similarly, the poultry feed producing units and stockiest of grand parents have also been crushed by restrictions on export of Punjab poultry products to Punjab's biggest export country, Afghanistan.
Basit said poultry farmers had invested billions of rupees in setting up more than 20,000 farms across the province which produces more than 73 percent of the country's total production. More than three million households are directly or indirectly attached with the industry which is the cheapest source of protein for the poor and stabilisers of vegetables and grams prices in the country, he added.