The import of chicken feed containing pork is still being imported apparently for the use of fertiliser but being mixed in fishmeal, despite the fact that there is no crop that needs such kind of animal by-product in Pakistan. The import of this feed for the poultry industry is banned but surprisingly processed chicken meat produced from feed containing pork is allowed into Pakistan.
While giving presentation to the Lahore Economic Journalists Association here on Saturday, the former Chairman, Pakistan Poultry Association Khalid Sattar strongly demanded of the government to immediately ban the import of all poultry feeds containing pork.
He said that under the SRO 1261(I)/2007 dated January 01, 2009 duty-free imports of value-added chicken from Malaysia have been allowed. The SRO has become a main source of encouragement for the import of processed chicken that was main hurdle for the local industry, which could not flourish mainly on this account, he added.
However, he said that the import was only benefiting the major multinational fast food outlets and five star hotels. Pakistan government should have acted in line with the Indian government that has imposed 100 percent duty on import of processed chicken meat, he maintained.
Talking about the rising trend of the poultry prices in the country, he said it was because of closure of majority grandparent poultry farms that has squeezed the supply of one-day old chicks in the market and partly due to increase in poultry feed rates. There were five parent stock producing units in the country out of which three have been closed because of declining demand.
The remaining two units also had to curtail their grand parent stock due to very low demand in 2008, as the rates of one-day old chicks dipped to as low as Rs 1 during the depression witnessed in poultry sector in 2008, he added. He further explained that the grandparent and parent breeding stock was like any other seed which has a multiplying factor.
He said one grandparent produces 40 parents and one parent produces 120 commercial chicks. He said 40 percent of the parent stock producing units were also closed down during this period. He claimed that the chicken rates have still not increased even to cover the rate of food inflation in the country.
He said increase in chicken rates has dampened the demand and shrunk the industry. The capacities were being increased again and the downward trend in chicken rates would be visible after four months, he said predicting that the chicken rates might even go down below the production cost again in 2011 and 2012.
He said the rates of one-day old chicks have eased from a peak of Rs 85 to Rs 55 with the increased supply but were still much higher due to continue high demand. He urged the government to waive 5 percent duty on the import of grandparent and parent stocks to reduce the cost of chicken meat in the country.
He said poultry industry expanded rapidly during 2003-2005 five years period from production of 483 million broilers to 830 million broiler chickens. He said the chicken meat production during this period increased from 869 million kg to 1494 million kg. The per capita chicken meat consumption in the country stood at 5.7 kg, said adding that the chicken processing industry in Pakistan was in its infancy.
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