Chicken Exports Banned to Avert Domestic Shortage

EghtesadOnline: The ministries of agriculture and industries have reached an agreement to ban chicken exports to boost supply in the domestic market and help keep prices in check.

News ID: ۷۵۱۴۶۶

13 November 2020

Earlier this year, due to overproduction, the country temporarily reduced chicken export duty, resulting in the outflow of most of the country’s poultry output and increasing domestic prices, IRNA reported.

Iran’s poultry farmers have the potential to boost exports to 500,000 tons of meat per year, but factors such as US sanctions and a feed shortage remain the biggest obstacles, according to Poultry World.

With a 50% decline in chicken consumption in Iran following the outbreak of the pandemic, the removal of export tariffs was aimed at helping producers cushion their losses by exporting at least part of their surplus production.

According to Parviz Foroughi, secretary of Iran Chicken Farmers Union, the unaffordable prices of chicken feed in the past several months have phased out around 7,000 chicken farmers from the production cycle.

Chicken Farmers Union said early in May that the shortage of poultry feed at subsidized prices has forced broiler chicken producers to procure at least half of their requirement at higher, open-market rates, causing a rise in chicken prices.

Iran exported more than 7,000 tons of chicken worth over $13.28 million during the first quarter of the current fiscal year (March 20-June 20), according to Rouhollah Latifi, spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration.

The three top destinations of Iran’s chicken meat during the three-month period were Afghanistan with 4,116 tons worth $8.19 million, Iraq with 2,523 tons worth $3.6 million and Venezuela with 264 tons worth $585,205, he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.

According to Gholamreza Maleknia, an Agriculture Ministry official, Iran produces 2.5 million tons of chicken annually.

Between 120 million and 130 million chickens are produced per month.

The average Producer Price Index for industrial chicken farms in the second quarter of the current Iranian year (June 21-Sept. 21) increased by 39.84% compared with the corresponding quarter of last year.

The overall PPI for the sector in the summer that ended on Sept. 21, using 2011 as the base year, stood at 680.04, indicating a 34.71% growth compared with the preceding quarter.

During the four-quarter period ending Sept. 21, PPI increased by 15.19% compared with the similar period of the year before. The index grew by 12.85% in the four-quarter period ending June 20.

The highest quarter-on-quarter increase of the index among Iranian provinces during the period under review was registered for Bushehr with 76.32% and the biggest producer deflation was recorded in Gilan with 1.99%.

On a year-on-year basis, Chaharmahal-Bakhtiari Province registered the highest increase with 184.94% and Gilan posted the biggest deflation with 8.59%, the Statistical Center of Iran reported.