‘Poultry farms to be torched if chicken imports continue’

KABUL (Pajhwok): The Afghanistan Poultry Farms Union (APFU) on Wednesday warned of torching their farms if the government did not stop import of live chicken and meat from neighboring countries.

Ansarullah Bakhtani, overall Poultry Farms Union head, told a joint press conference that Afghanistan’s poultry sector was one of the largest in the country with more than $1 billion investment.

He said the local poultry farms sector was on the verge of collapse due to poor quality imports and corruption at customs.

The union issued a resolution that called on the government to ban the import of live chickens to Afghanistan, give the union the right to monitor and control the import of poultry products at ports and customs, and increase tariffs on frozen chicken meat to facilitate the growth of the local industry.

Earlier, the Poultry Union head asked the government to work for self-sufficiency of the sector by establishing more farms. Currently chicken meat is produced in more than 800 different poultry farms in the northern zone.

The resolution also called on the government to work on a clear policy for the poultry sector that has an executive guarantee for investors.

It also said the government should establish a joint and competent board, consisting of the sector ministries and the union to regulate the affairs of the sector.

Bakhtani added if the government did not address their demands, they would launch protests nation-wide.

HamidullahNoori, Poultry Farms Union head in western Herat province, told the meeting there were 10,000 of poultry farms and 4000 farms producing eggs and the rest 6,000 were producing chickens and chicken meat.

He said 100,000 workers worked in the above farms directly and 500,000 indirectly.

He said if the government did not take measures for solution of their issues, a number of people will lose their job.

pk/ma