- Advertisement -
LAHORE, Dec 06 (APP): Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA-North Region) Vice Chairman Malik Muhammad Sharif has demanded of the authorities concerned to remove capping on poultry meat prices.
In a media statement here Friday, he said that poultry is the most organized sector in agriculture, and at present, this sector is fulfilling 40 percent of the meat consumption, besides providing employment to around 1.5 million individual. Poultry meat and egg prices are determined by the basic principles of supply and demand. However, different seasons also affect the supply and demand of chicken eggs and meat, which leads to price variations. Other factors that affect the prices of poultry products are Islamic festivals, disease at farms, power load-shedding and inflation etc.
Poultry product prices are self-regulated by these factors. Which are neither under the control of poultry farmers nor public sectors. Poultry product prices fall due to limited or high demand. Apart from increasing the production and supply of poultry products, no other method is proven effective. Any intervention by the public sector to deal with low prices of poultry products is counterproductive. And the poultry farmers face a lot of crisis and are forced to close their business.
He said the relevant departments have fixed chicken meat price at Rs 600, asserting that it is the upper limit, while no lower limit is fixed. Chicken (meat) being a perishable item cannot be kept at farms for more than four to five days. Approximately a loss of about Rs 5.5 to Rs 6 million on a single shed is being faced by poultry farmer, he claimed.
PPA (NR) Vice Chairman Malik Muhammad Sharif urged the Punjab government to withdraw capping on chicken meat prices so as to save this sector from collapse.