Chicken Farmers Suffer Losses Amid Surplus Production

EghtesadOnline: Chicken farmers have suffered 21 trillion rials ($130 million) in losses in the past five months due to a production surplus, the head of Iran Broiler Breeders Union’s board of directors said.

News ID: ۷۴۹۹۷۰

04 May 2020

Boroumand Chahar-Aeen expects the current trend to continue and losses to further increase because of the prevailing circumstances.

According to the official, a decline in purchasing power is also one of the reasons behind the surplus production, Young Journalists Club reported.

According to Mehdi Yousefkhani, the head of Tehran’s Union of Fowl and Fish Sellers, there has been a 50% decline in chicken consumption in Iran following the coronavirus outbreak.

Chahar-Aaeen noted that there is a chicken production surplus of at least 30,000 tons every month.

“Iran produces 2.4 million tons of chicken per year,” he said, adding that production capacity stands at over 3 million tons.

Duties on chicken exports have been abolished until May 21, which is aimed at helping producers cushion their losses by exporting at least part of their surplus production.

A severe shortage of animal feed, including soybean and corn meal, poses a challenge for poultry farmers, due to which millions of day-oil chickens were recently culled, raising much debate and criticism.

Following the release of a footage on social media showing the destruction of the poultry, the Day-Old Chicken Producers Association wrote a letter to its members banning the cull of day-old chickens, saying any violations will be prosecuted.

Akbar Golshahi, an official with the Iran Veterinary Organization, told Fars News Agency, that 1.2 billion day-old chicken are produced in Iran annually.