Amid massive investment to cater to rising demand and consumption, growth of poultry products is expected to rise by 30 per cent to the value of NPR53 billion – around four per cent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – this year.

According to Republica, researchers said the investment in poultry has increased by NPR2 billion with the opening of over 5,000 new poultry farms across the country over the year to take the number of poultry farms to around 18,000.

Dr Til Chandra Bhattarai, a poultry researcher and poultry entrepreneur, told the newspaper, "New investments are coming in feed, hatchery, egg production and broiler chicken production in new urban areas where demand of poultry products is growing sharply.

"Production is expected to shoot up by an all-time high rate of 30 per cent this year to cross NPR53 billion topline by next 12 months,”

Dr Bhattarai said investments worth more than NPR1 billion are in the pipeline for investment for next one year in different parts of the country. With the rising demand for poultry products, existing farms are expanding their operations whereas fresh investment is also increasing in emerging poultry sectors such as Nuwakot, Kavre, Kathmandu, Udaypur, Surkhet, Kohalpur, Hetauda, Baglung, Pokhara, among others. Total investment in this sector is around NPR32 billion till this year.

With the proliferation of poultry farms in different places, share of Chitwan district – a poultry hub – in total poultry production in the country has gone down to 30 per cent from around 40 per cent a couple of years back.

"We have sufficient prospect for increasing the demand for eggs and chickens in domestic market as our consumption is far below the Asian and Western countries' levels," added Dr Bhattarai, who is also the managing director of Chitwan-basd Pancha Ranta Group - one of the country´s largest poultry producers.

Annual per-capita consumption of chicken stands at 3kg in Nepal, well below 9 kg and 21 kg of average consumption in Asia and western countries, respectively. Likewise per-capita egg consumption in Nepal has been recorded at 50 eggs, which is below the 120 eggs average for Asia.

Dr Bhattarai added that Nepal's poultry sector was almost stagnant between 2001 and 2005 but has continued to see double-digit growth for the last seven years. Last year, production of poultry products -–chicks, broiler chicken, eggs and feeds – has increased by 23 per cent to reach NPR41 billion.

Also former president of Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum – an umbrella organization of poultry entrepreneurs – he said that production reached 6.5 million heads and 650,000 heads per month for broiler chicks and layers chicks, respectively, during the fiscal year 2010/11.

Similarly, daily production of feeds and chicken (meat) recorded at 2,200 tons and 295 tons, respectively.

Republica reports that around 57.8 million commercial broilers were kept on the poultry farms throughout the country. Around three million eggs are produced everyday in the country.