TEHRAN,Iran, May 19
Trend:
Iran's chicken farmers are facing losses due to lack of balance in prices, and growing surplus production, the board member of Iran's Poultry Producers Association Ahmad Yousefi told Trend.
"The price of chicken is currently down and the producers have to face losses, if the prices don't increase, the poultry farms will be closed," he said.
He added that the production in the poultry sector was too much in the last Iranian year (began March 21, 2019).
"Although the state is purchasing as much as possible, the prices aren't balanced yet. In the future the chicken price should be calculated to have the producers earn some profit," said Yousefi.
"The price of live chicken should be set at the farm not behind the desk in an office," he added.
"The low prices prevent chicken farmers from providing for low income class, and the government should provide subsidies to reduce the prices, and the producers should be provided with official foreign currency rate to facilitate exports," said the official.
Yousefi said such factors as fluctuation of prices, illness of chickens should be considered when calculating new price.
"The chicken price in last two years was 130,000 rials (about$3) and it should not remain the same," he said.
Yousefi also noted that the countries with successful exports of chicken such as Brazil, the US, Turkey provide rewards to their exporters, while the Europeans export less chickens and eggs, and aren't very active.
"Iran exports poultry products to Afghanistan and Iraq, but the volumes aren't big. Last month, some 115 million eggs have been produced at poultry farms," he said.
