Poultry producers complain of losses amid imports’ low prices

CAIRO – 21 December 2017: Local poultry-producing companies complain of major losses during the past three months, the General Federation of Poultry (GFP) producers said on Thursday in a statement.

“The losses mainly occurred as a result of the recession and the weak purchase of the domestic products of poultry, whereas consumers buy the imported full chickens and the parts as well,” the GFP head said, according to the statement.

Customs tariffs on imported poultry have been removed since November 2017. This is a decision that has triggered notable refusal by domestic producers as it renders their products incapable of competing with imported chickens.

The prices of imported frozen poultry are very low compared to our domestic products, GFP said.

It added that the government is importing huge quantities of frozen poultry without conducting any market studies on the supply and demand actually needed, therefore, the supply of frozen poultry is huge and it is about to expire.

On his part, head of GFP Nabil Darwish told Egypt Today that the local producers of poultry demand that the government completely halts imports either for full chickens or for parts of poultry which have spread in the country during the past period.

Official figures noted by the Egyptian Cabinet in late June showed that Egyptians consume annually 1.9 million tons of poultry; out of those 100,000 are imported.

Darwish added that a compromise may take place between the GFP and the government if the government imposes a 30-percent full tariff.

Chairman of Delta Misr Co. for Poultry told ON TV’s “Kol Youm” program that “the government should remove tariffs on customs of poultry feeds and, in that case, we will accept competition.”