LAHORE: Consumer market of Pakistan will be captured quickly by other countries including India, as the Peshawar District Administration has imposed ban on export of poultry products to Afghanistan. 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.
Dr. Muhammad Mustafa Kamal, Chairman Pakistan Poultry Association (NZ), while condemning this act of damaging of the poultry sector, asked federal government to take immediate notice of this issue and necessary instructions to the government of KPK be issued to remove the ban on poultry products to Afghanistan immediately.
In a letter written to Peshawar District Coordination Officer, Dr. Mustafa Kamal contended that every country is making efforts to increase its exports but the provincial gov.t of KPK is trying to restrict export which is not only harmful for KPK but also the industry of the whole country. “Afghanistan is natural market for Pakistani products. It would be very unfortunate if we lose this market and handover it to other countries. Export market is not like an on, off switch, once lost is very difficult to regain. Moreover, the major portion of poultry export to Afghanistan consists of Cull Birds, which is normally not consumed in Pakistan.”
He said that the DCO Peshawar’s decision is also a contempt of court, as the Supreme Court of Pakistan, in its verdict had allowed the poultry products export to Afghanistan, rejecting the earlier decision of Peshawar High Court.
The PPA chairman added that 10 per cent of the parent stock was used in Pakistan while 90 per cent is 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, he said. By imposing ban on poultry products export to Afghanistan the chicken rate will be crashed. The authorities can consider it a success but actually it is plan of industry disaster. He 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, he added.
Poultry sector is one of the largest agro based segment of Pakistan having an investment of Rs.700 Billion. It is worth mentioning here that despite all constraining factors the growth rate of this sector is 8 to 10% per annum. Since it is tremendously growing and therefore it has proved to be the major stumbling block in price increase of red meat
