The News reports this as the consensus among those who have contacted the publication with their comments on the current status of the poultry industry.

Pakistan Poultry Association former chairman Abdul Basit said the cost of breeding chicken has risen very high as prices of soybean meal, used in poultry feeds, increased from $200 per ton to $460 per ton in one year. Soybean constitutes 25 per cent of poultry diets.

He said the cost of a bag of poultry feed had surged from PKR600 to PKR1,100 within a short time, adding that food inflation had also hit the industry.

Another farmer, Muzaffar Rizvi, said the vaccination cost of broiler chicken had risen from PKR5 to PKR8 per bird. For grandparent birds, this cost has increased from PKR25 to PKR40 per bird while the cost of one-day-old chick comes to PKR20.

He added that the trend towards housing of birds has compounded the problems. "Poultry farms are now established in closed sheds that are ventilated round the clock through fans and coolers. However, many poultry birds die if electricity goes off for over an hour, particularly in the summer." Poultry farmers had been forced to install generators to ensure uninterrupted supply of electricity.

Mr Basit said Pakistan produced three million chickens with an average weight of one kilo. The industry has enjoyed no real protection from imports. The import duty on grandparent birds is 5 per cent. He suggested that the duty on parent birds should be increased from five per cent to 25 per cent, and day-old chicks also to 25 per cent.

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