Poultry panel will deal with industry disputes

DUBAI - A proposal to set up a permanent committee for the poultry industry is being studied, following the directives of the Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

The Emirates Poultry Producers Association (EPPA) and a number of distributors including the Union cooperatives have been informed of the directives.

The committee that will be formed will, to begin with, study the urgent disputes of poultry producers and distributors. It will be armed with wide-ranging powers and its decision on any dispute will be binding on all parties.

The decision to set up the permanent committee comes in the wake of recent dispute between the poultry association and the Union Cooperative Society (UCS) in Dubai which violated the uniform price policy by selling poultry brought from Oman under its brand name ‘Al Itihad’ at very low market price. The move had resulted in financial losses estimated at millions of dirhams for 16 local companies which have invested Dh1 billion into the industry.

Local poultry companies met last month to discuss effective measures to protect the EPPA’s uniform price agreement reached in October 2004, and to seek more cooperation with retailers and distributors to help the industry survive. Although, the final outcome of the meeting is yet to be disclosed, a source at EPPA said they are awaiting approval by the Ministry of Finance on the recommendations of the meeting.

Source: khaleejtimes.com

15 June 2005