The poultry industry has been dealt a strong blow following the 25 January Revolution, reports Ahmed Kotb The repercussions of a slowed down tourist season still have their toll on various vital sectors. A million tourists are said to have fled Egypt since the revolution erupted causing the country not only the inevitable loss of the main source of foreign currency, but also negatively affecting a long list of tourist-related businesses such as the poultry industry, to name but one. "Most of the major slaughterhouses live on demand by the tourism sector," said Abdel-Aziz El-Sayed, head of the poultry division at Cairo Chamber of Commerce, adding that many of these slaughterhouses were forced to lay off workers due to the absence of income. Lack of tourists was not the only problem according to El-Sayed. "Poultry stores are defying Article 70/2009 which prohibits the circulation of live poultry," he noted. Stores are taking advantage of the absence of security presence, and there are some stores that are being newly opened to trade in live poultry, which adds up to the losses the slaughterhouses suffer, since they only sell frozen fowl. Additionally, El-Sayed stated that poultry slaughterhouses and farms are stabilising prices -- which dropped significantly since 25 January -- despite rises in prices of inputs needed for the industry such as corn and chicks. "Almost 50 per cent of corn, which constitutes 75 to 80 per cent of fodder, is imported," El-Sayed said. Since most of the imported corn come from Brazil, prices are always subject to sudden increases due to the South American country's preference to use corn in producing bio-fuel. "When the international prices of oil rise, Brazil is one of the countries that prefer to use its huge production of corn as a replacement for oil, and sells corn to outside markets with higher prices," says El-Sayed who believes the only solution is in expanding production of corn locally to become self-sufficient. "The division suggested to the Ministry of Agriculture that if we do not have enough agricultural lands for expanding corn production, we have to look south to Sudan," he added. Despite all the financial problems that face farms and slaughterhouses, prices of poultry in the local market are stable. The price of a kilogramme sold at farms is LE10.5, and the end consumer can buy it for LE12.75. "We cannot increase the prices despite higher production costs because no one will buy from us," says Mohamed Hassan, manager of the sales department at the Arab Poultry Breeders Company. Hassan added that the buying power of people is weaker because they want to save up for the uncertain future. He also says that his company suffers huge losses due to lower selling prices, and some medical problems in the company's farms caused by the previous government that imported inefficient vaccines. "Moreover, the decision of prohibiting circulation of live poultry does not help combating the H1N1 virus and should be revised," Hassan added. El-Sayed stressed that the poultry sector suffers from many problems, even since before the beginning of the political unrest. He added that the poultry division has prepared a number of suggestions for the Ministry of Agriculture to help overcome those problems. One of these problems, according to El-Sayed, is that poultry farms have to renew their licences every year for LE1,000, and that makes the farm owner always worried about renewing the licence instead of taking care of the farm and expanding production. "I suggested the licence be renewed every three years for LE1,000," he said. Moreover, "the poultry division suggested the activation of Article 70/2009 without having to shut down stores that sell live fowl," El-Sayed said. Instead, he added, the Social Fund for Development can finance each store owner with up to LE50,000 to prepare the store with needed equipment for selling frozen fowl. El-Sayed, however, believes the most effective way to overcome the sector's difficulties is to enhance the industry's local production and become self-sufficient. "Egypt's daily production of poultry reached 1.6 million, and consumption is estimated at 2.2 million," he stated, adding that the gap is filled by daily imports of 600,000. "Consumption is increased by 25 per cent in the month of Ramadan -- which is in less than four months. Preparations have to be made from now to prevent uncontrollable price hikes," El-Sayed stressed. In a recent meeting at the division, an action plan for increasing production in five years to three million a day was discussed. El-Sayed calls for imposing more customs duties gradually on imported poultry in order to protect the national industry, and asks government officials to allocate more land spaces for the establishment of more farms. "If everything goes well, we will become exporters of poultry in five years," El-Sayed declared.
