September 23, 2010

Qatar Arabia Poultry Company exceeds annual poultry production

Qatar Arabia Poultry Company claims that it supplied as many as 780,000 fresh and frozen chickens to the local market for retail sales during the fasting month of Ramadan alone, which is more than half of their annual production.

The company's general manager Mustafa Haiba noted that annual chicken production is 1.5 million. The demand for white meat in Qatar is rising in the local market as beef becomes increasingly expensive, he said.

This implies that chicken consumption, like the consumption of many other food items, went up drastically during the fasting month.

Haiba said the company supplies 120 million eggs to the local market in a year, adding that the company has 60% share in the local poultry and poultry products market.

He said production went up 30% during Ramadan as compared to the holy month last year. Plans are afoot to raise chicken production capacity to 12 million.

The company boasts automatic slaughter machines which make it possible for the company to have a packaging capacity per hour of 3,000 chickens. Among the company's plans is to produce and supply minced chicken meat as well as boneless chicken, he said.

In addition, the demand for poultry and its products had increased manifold in the Qatari market due to population explosion, Haiba said.