Abdel-Aziz El-Sayed, head of the Poultry Division of the Chamber of Commerce in Cairo, said the prices of the imported poultry in the local market have remarkably become higher reaching EGP 18. “We are currently conducting investigations to find the reasons behind the abnormal hike in the imported poultry prices. The local price has reached EGP 13.5 in farms and EGP 20 in slaughterhouses." El-Sayed added El-Sayed denounced the stance adopted by the Principal Bank For Development and Agricultural Credit (PBDAC) as the bank filled cases against the owners of the poultry farms, which amount to 1400 slaughterhouses. The prison sentences against some of those owners ranged between 3 months and 5 years. “I will lodge an urgent complaint to the Minister of Agriculture demanding his mediation.' He added El-Sayed added that he would also ask the Minister of agriculture for his immediate intervention to stop sending the poultry farms' owners to prison since there are multiple ministerial decrees issued aiming at supporting the poultry sector, the farms in particular. “This support would be through compensating the farms' owners through making use of some channels such as the PBDAC." “PBDAC has filled cases against the owners of the poultry farms so as to pay back the sum of money they received from the bank as compensations in 2006 amid the Bird Flu repercussions." “These compensations given by the state-owned bank, the PBDAC, aiming at supporting the owners so as to prevent the poultry industry in Egypt from closing down during that period."
