Saudi Arabia Ready To Revitalize Poultry Industry - SAUDI ARABIA - With growing concerns over the deficit in the poultry industry, Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Agriculture is planning to organize a seminar in March as part of the plan to revitalize the industry.

The poultry industry has been passing through a rough patch for quite some time after enjoying a boom until the mid-1990s.

The Kingdom's Poultry Farmers Association says that the industry is on the crossroads and if something substantial is not done, then the entire industry might collapse.

"Some kind of taxation is a must for foreign products in order to strike a balance between domestic and international groups," said a member of the association.

The annual turnover of the poultry industry in Saudi Arabia is SR31 billion and many poultry farms have reduced their prices considerably to compete.

"It is rather a matter of survival than competition," said Abdullah Al-Hilal, owner of a Dammam poultry farm. He said that recently out of 536 poultry projects financed by the Agriculture Bank, over 132 have been dropped. He said that many small farms had been closed down and some big ones were on the verge of closure.

Previously a live chicken was sold for SR9 each but many shops in Dammam and Alkhobar have brought the price as low as SR7 and SR8 depending upon the weight of the chicken. Poultry farm owners say that on the one hand they are virtually forced to slash their prices and on the other the cost has been increasing drastically over the years.

Al-Hilal said that in the recent past the price of fodder has gone up as well as transport cost. In addition, the cost of processing for chilled chicken is also staggering and unfortunately the tough competition is in that sector only, he said.

Source: eFeedLink - 2nd January 2004