September 9, 2013

Pakistan's poultry industry on the rise

Due to the growing number of fast food chains and other popular food outlets, poultry is one of the fastest growing sectors in Pakistan.

The introduction of new technologies, including the change to control-sheds, has attracted investors to invest more money into poultry ventures to cater to market needs.

According to local expert, Khalid Ali, over 60% of the poultry industry is based in Punjab and to ensure disease-free production, birds are bred in control-sheds at most farms. However, in the past two years, investors in Faisalabad have also built hundreds of control-shed poultry farms to cash in on the opportunity, and are getting a positive response.

Every year, new poultry farms are joining the industry to satisfy the demand of the growing market. With this, prices of eggs and white meat are also rising as well as its quality.

In the past few years, the price of poultry products has more than doubled boosting the industry's prospects. According to market watchers, the average price of chicken meat had gone from US$1.19/kg to US$2.40/kg - US$2.60kg in last few years. Eggs went from US$0.34 - US$0.46 per dozen to US$0.92 - US$1.24 per dozen.