LAHORE - The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has been providing transit route to India, Brazil and the USA for the shipment of food, eggs and poultry products to Afghanistan but denying the export from its own country. Resultantly, the local industry is rapidly closing down, as Afghanistan is the consumer market of Pakistan, which is now being captured quickly by other countries including India due to bad policies, poultry industry experts said on Sunday.They said that Pakistan Poultry Association requested the KP government to at least allow export of breeder stock instead of broiler stock, if it feels that export to Afghanistan is creating shortage of poultry products in the country. The poultry industry experts added that 10 per cent of the parent stock was used in Pakistan while 90 per cent was consumed by Afghanistan. Hence, the ban on export of poultry products will force the farmers to dispose of their stock in market at below the cost, leading to significant loss and ultimately closure of the whole chain of poultry industry, they said.By imposing ban on poultry products export to Afghanistan the chicken rate has been crashed, and authorities are considering it a success but actually it is plan of industry disaster. They claimed that poultry products are available at most economic rate in Pakistan as compared to the world and even cheaper than regional countries including India. In spite of the fact that Pakistan imports soybean from India- the basic raw material of poultry industry, they added. The industry has also suggested the government to withdraw subsidies from other utilities but focus to provide maximum benefit in oil to public by fixing the rate of diesel at Rs35 per liter for one year, as it would result into automatic reduction of power tariff rates, transport fairs and input cost of agriculture and industry, observed PPA ex-chairman Abdul Basit.The LCCI former SVP stated that decision to cease the prices of diesel will yield results within very short span, as prices of every product and commodity will start easing, they observed. Poultry farmers say that presently, live bird is costing farmers around Rs140 per kg on average while ex-farm rate is below Rs80 per kg. Hence, poultry farmers are presently suffering loss of over Rs120 per live bird of 2kg and loss of Rs60 per kg. On average, country produces around 3 million broiler birds daily, translating into loss of about Rs360 million just in broiler farms, he said, adding that breeders are also suffering loss of the same amount of Rs360 million on daily basis, totaling loss of Rs720 million to poultry industry daily. Poultry at present contributes 40 per cent of the total meat consumption and generates employment and income for about 1.8 million people.
