KARACHI, June 20: Poultry prices surged to Rs82 from Rs74 per kg on June 1, showing a rise of Rs8 per kg in just 20 days. On May 1, the poultry price stood at Rs54 per kg. Consumers are now paying Rs130 per kg to buy poultry meat as compared to Rs120-125 per kg some 20 days back. Like past practice, the rate of Karachi Wholesalers’ Poultry Association (KWPA) is on the higher side by Rs2 per kg on live poultry birds as compared to rates quoted by Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA). The rate of meat quoted by KWPA is Rs134 per kg.

The general secretary KWPA Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui attributed the price hike to the gap of six to seven weeks in putting up new chicks for production purposes.

“There has been a production shortage in the farms which is leading to price hike,” he said adding that a total of 1.6 million birds were being slaughtered in Karachi on weekly basis as against the demand of 2.4-2.5 million birds per week in normal days.

He claimed that the demand for chicken had surged in the summer season as against the market perception that consumers usually avoid eating chicken in hot weather. The marriage season is also in full swing and people are hosting dinners either in halls or in their houses for the guests.

Poultry industry is now slowly recovering after the bird flu scare that gripped the industry in February this year with the outbreak of the disease in some farms of Northern Areas followed by detection of the virus at poultry farms in Islamabad in the third week of April. The industry has suffered billions of rupees losses since February in terms of sales. The industry, however, started witnessing recovery in sales of birds from the second week of May when people, who had lost confidence on white meat owing to bird flu scare, started buying chicken.

Kamal, however, did not agree that the price increase reflected a real recovery of the industry, saying it will take time to heal the wounds of the industry in which many small and medium farmers had either packed up their business or shifted over to other trade.

He said that the one-day-old chick’s price has also surged to Rs22 from Rs12 last month. In April, it was priced at Rs2-3. It means that one-day -old chicks are also in short supply and, that’s why, their price has surged in the market.

Central chairman PPA, Raza Mehmood Khursand told Dawn on Tuesday that the industry was producing only 50 per cent of its total capacity because there has been no production of chicks in the pipeline. In case the one-day-old chicks are available, then it is priced between Rs22-23. He added that prices of poultry birds were rising all over the country.

He said the industry suffered losses (from February 27 to May 30, 2006) amounting to over Rs10 billion as against the preliminary estimates of Rs18-20 billion. However, he added that out of 1.2 million people employed in this industry, some 500,000 lost their jobs owing to the closure of farms after bird flu scare.

He expressed surprise over government’s package of Rs1 billion for the poultry industry against huge losses and added that Rs1 billion was basically meant for research and development, vaccine production, etc. rather than for boosting poultry farming.