Intervention from government in poultry sector will result in a complete disaster for the industry and also result in price hike because controlling prices of poultry products is not mandated in Profiteering and Hoarding Act 1977, said Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) spokesman Abdul Maroof Siddiqui.
He said all over the world, no such example was found to control poultry prices because these prices are determined on the basis of supply and demand.
He said the poultry association too, does not have any role in determining or controlling poultry prices due to this phenomenon. He further said poultry farms had been incurring huge losses for the past 8 months due to selling chicks at the price of Rs 2 to Rs 8, which resulted in shutdown of 30 poultry farms in Karachi and its surroundings, adding that this could be confirmed from the livestock department of the province. Therefore, he added, if the government intervenes to control poultry prices, the industry would completely breakdown. “This is the reason the price of chicken is not included in the Profiteering and Hoarding Act 1977 which is implemented in the whole country,” he argued.
Talking on reasons of current increase in prices of poultry products, he said it was due to low supply because of loss to poultry farms in the past few months, their shutdown, and sudden increase in demand since the prices of poultry products are based on supply and demand phenomenon.
To fill the demand gap, traders have started supplying chicken to Karachi from Rahim Yar Khan, Bahawalpur, and Multan and the situation will get better soon, he said, adding that the meeting which the commissioner recently called did not have any representative from the poultry industry to clarify the situation.
He said the meeting did not consider the economic and market factors while determining prices, which is detrimental because those planning to re-establish poultry farms will not dare do so in such circumstances when the government is intervening.
This will heavily reduce supply of chicken to Karachi from other provinces because live chicken cannot be stored and traders will not supply chicken at the price of Rs 170 per kg as determined by the government. “The price of live chicken in Rahim Yar khan is Rs 170 per kg and Rs 165 per kg in Multan. If the price of chicken in the said cities was Rs 130 per kg, only then would it be possible to sell chicken at Rs 170 per kg in Karachi,” he said.
Thus, he added, supply of chicken to Karachi from the said cities was going to stop while poultry prices had also increased in interior Sindh due to losses to owners of poultry farms. “The supply of hatching eggs will also be stopped since they are coming from northern areas of the country, which will also reduce production of chicken,” he added. The spokesman said the result of the whole situation was very clear and people will be deprived of animal protein.
”Poultry products are like vegetables, the prices of which cannot be fixed,” he added.
Poorly written article.
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