September 21, 2004

Pakistan Poultry Industry Seeks Tax Holiday

In a bid to revive the diminishing poultry industry, Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) has urged the government to declare tax holiday for the industry and render interest-free loans up to one million rupees to the farmers.

Abdul Basit, chairman of PPA, said Monday the "small" farmer had disappeared from the market as he could not bear the brunt of the losses due to the bird flu virus.  Meanwhile the survival of the mediocre farmer was also at stake.

The prices of poultry products shot up due to the shortage of meat. The farmers had to kill their birds, parent birds and even grand parent birds so that the disease could be checked.

Thus as the proper supply and demand system was not smoothly run, the chicken meat prices still could not be controlled.