There is no respite for the consumers as the chicken meat price rose by Rs seven per kilogram on Monday and retailers sold the broiler meat at Rs 125 to 130 per kg in the city. Central Chairman Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) Abdul Basit told Business Recorder that PPA market committee daily fixes the price of chicken meat in the light of supply and demand.
The committee wants to increase the price to Rs 150 per kilo to cover farmers' cost of production, he added. It may be added that the price of chicken on 1st November was around Rs 100 per kg, which decreased from Rs 150 per kilo in a month due to lower demand and greater supply. The winter wedding season has considerably increased the chicken meat demand, giving rise to the price. However, there was no change in the price of eggs which are being sold at Rs 59 to Rs 60 per dozen by the shopkeepers.
Basit said that the poultry farmers were still selling chicken meat by at least Rs 20 per kilo less than their cost of production though the prices of good quality mutton and beef have been constantly hiking.
According to him, the daily consumption of chicken meat is three million kilograms, which is about 40 percent of the total mutton, beef and meat consumption per day in the country.
Basit said, Rs 350 billion fragile poultry farming industry is in crisis due to increase in the chicken feed prices, levy of 15 percent GST on electricity bills of the poultry farms and refusal of the State Bank to waive off 35 percent LC margin on the import of raw material for the industry.
He said the government should take urgent measures to make the 25,800 poultry farms profitable that produce one billion broilers and 12 billion eggs every year and provide livelihood to 1.5 million households. Basit said the government can overcome financial difficulties by promoting poultry farming and increasing exports of poultry products to the countries which have banned poultry imports from Pakistan.
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