Afghan border closure hits poultry industry hard

Business Recorder reported that Pakistan's poultry sector faces a severe crisis, as exports to Afghanistan have been halted since October last year following the border closure. Producers are left with surplus supply and are selling chicken below production cost. Around 20 percent of national output previously went to Afghanistan, and shipments have not resumed while the border stays shut.

Imran Khan, a major poultry farmer who sits on the executive of the Pakistan Poultry Association, said the border closure is among the main reasons prices have fallen. He also cited expensive diesel and climbing transport costs as added pressure. Chicken costs about Rs290 per kilogram to produce but is sold near Rs250, a loss of roughly Rs40 per kilogram, while chicks costing around Rs70 fetch as little as Rs5 and producers pay about Rs10 per chick in Federal Excise Duty.

The Sindh-Balochistan Broiler Farmers Alliance held a consultative meeting on the crisis and agreed that a transparent, fair rate mechanism should be built on production costs, data and actual market conditions. The alliance resolved to draft its own alternative pricing formula using data, aimed at protecting farmers' economic interests. Imran Khan said this was the most prolonged and grave poultry crisis the country has known, surpassing the bird flu episode of close to two decades earlier.