July 19, 2010

 

Lahore, Pakistan lose poultry profits

Poultry profits in Lahore, Pakistan have been declining for some weeks due to the sharp decline in chicken meat prices and hot and sultry weather that does not allow birds to gain much weight, poultry farmers say.

 

"The poultry feed rates have registered unusual increase this year owing to shortage of grains, the main ingredient of poultry feed," said Abdul Basit, Pakistan Poultry Association's former chairman.

 

Basit said corn production had declined in the country because the area under its cultivation was curtailed last year. He said the price of a poultry feed bag of 50 kg had now risen to PKR1,500 (US$17.54) from PKR500 (US$5.85) a bag in July 2008. He said the cost of feed now accounted for 70% of the total cost of production in poultry business. The feed rates could come down if the government removed the 25% duty on the import of corn, he added. He said duty could be re-imposed in November when the corn crop is harvested in Pakistan.

 

Poultry expert Dr S M Sabir said that poultry meat was currently being sold at PKR150-160 (US$1.75-1.87) per kg compared with its winter rates of PKR220-250 (US$2.57-2.92) per kg. He said although the rates of one-day-old chicks had declined to PKR40 (US$0.47) from a peak of PKR80 (US$0.94), the cost of a mature chicken was still in the range of PKR180-190 (US$2.11-2.22) per kg due to high mortality rates in summers. He said farmers were disposing their stocks at a price that was lower than their production cost.

 

Another poultry expert, Dr Abdul Karim, said that 40% of the poultry farms in the country were breeding stocks under controlled temperature in specially built sheds. These sheds that breed 35,000 chicks to maturity are built at a cost of PKR20 million (US$0.23). He said in order to maintain a certain temperature the farms need round-the-clock electricity supply.

 

"Since these poultry farms are in rural areas, they face load shedding of up to 21 hours and have to generate their own power, costing PKR25 (US$0.29) per unit," he said, adding that the entire stock was killed if electricity supply was disrupted for even three minutes.

 

Basit said the stocks that matured in these farms were conditioned to live in comfortable temperature. He said these chickens had to be slaughtered within 24 hours of being sold in the market during hot summer days; otherwise, they die of heat.

 

According to him, many farmers were planning to set up chicken processing units to avoid high mortalities. He warned that if VAT was imposed on poultry feed, poultry rate would increase to PKR400 (US$4.68) per kg. He said this protein-rich meat was currently available at prices lower than those of some pulses. He demanded that the government waive GST on electricity used by poultry farms.

 

Dr Sabir said that the growth of poultry business during the last two decades had been phenomenal. He said annual poultry population in the country increased from 146 million in 1990 to 618 million in 2010. Chicken meat production also increased to 0.7 million tonnes from 0.151 million tonnes in 1990.