Afghanistan produces chicken meat beyond demand

KABUL (Pajhwok): More than 10,000 poultry farms in Afghanistan produce 1,700 tonnes of chicken meat on a daily basis while demand for chicken is only 1,600 tonnes nationwide.

Engineer Toryalai Himmat Helmand, head of poultry farms association, told Pajhwok Afghan News only 10,000 poultry farms out of 13,000 were operational.

He said 800 million dollars has been invested in these farms across the country, which produce 1,700 tonnes of chicken meat every day while the demand for chicken meat in the country is only 1,600 tonnes. About 120,000 people work in these farms.

Since the takeover by Islamic Emirate, the Ministry of Finance (MoF) has completely waived poultry farms tax, banned the import of chicken over two kilograms of weight and increased import tax on chickens weighing less than two kilos to 40 percent, Helmand said.

Right now Afghanistan does not import chicken from foreign countries and is self-sufficient in this regard, he added.

With a decline in chicken market, chicken is supplied to markets with a cheap price. During the previous government, institutions would buy chicken meat twice a week for their staff while the current government is not using it at all.

The demand for chicken will go higher only if government institutions resume using chicken, help with marketing, control market and if the meat is supplied with cheaper price for public consumers, he added.

Right now each kilogram of chicken is supplied to sellers from poultry farms for 90 afghanis while they sell it to the public for 180 afghanis a kilo.

The main problem for chicken market in the country is lack of special location in domestic markets. If special locations for poultry products are created in the country, it will be very easy get control over its prices as well, he believed.

Helmand asked the government to create special poultry-product-markets across the country and purchase chicken for its staff twice a week instead of other meats.

According to Helmand, right now provinces such as Kabul, Nangarhar, Herat, Balkh and Kandahar have 45 special animal slaughter houses.

The poultry production sector witnessed a robust development across the country while packaging and processing sector is also improving.

Aman, a poultry farm owner, told Pajhwok he has been in this business since 12 years and has four poultry farms in Kabul’s Dehsabz district. He said he had invested six million in his farms.

While complaining from lack of a suitable market, he urged the government to create a special market for poultry products.

Zahir, another poultry farm owner, told Pajhwok he has five poultry farms in the same district of Kabul and has invested 3.5 million afghanis seven years ago and has employed 15 workers.

He also asked the government to have control over chicken markets.

Abdul Salam Jawad, spokesman for the Ministry of Industry and Commerce (MoIC) told Pajhwok the import of frozen chicken had been banned.

Jawad said: “Producing 300,000 tonnes of chicken meat annually, Afghanistan has reached self-sufficiency and does not import this product.”

However Pajhwok tried to get comments from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Irrigation (MoALI), but it did not reply until the publication of this report.

Afghanistan would import chicken during the past ten years from neighboring countries such as Iran and Pakistan.

aw/ma