National production 1.7 million chickens per day; 2.6 million projected for mid-2007
CAIRO: A new law to eliminate the sale of live poultry by 2010 is now being drafted for presentation to parliament in its upcoming session, Minister of Finance (MOF) Youssef Boutros-Ghali and Minister of Agriculture (MOA) Amin Abaza announced Saturday.
Under the proposed legislation, MOF would enter a partnership with private poultry distributors to fund the establishment of MOA-monitored abattoirs. The facilities would then be used to produce chilled or frozen poultry, replacing backyard farms and the current practice of selling live poultry through private butchers.
Ghali says the government s role will be to help develop and stabilize the non-live poultry market then sell its share either to the producers or to the public. The ministries will hold another meeting Nov. 12 to discuss the details of the draft legislation with the Egyptian Poultry Producers Association (EPPA) and a number of poultry producers.
The proposed law allows producers in the Greater Cairo and Alexandria governorates to continue selling live poultry until the end of 2007. It divides the remaining 23 governorates into two groups, one of which will be given until the end of 2008 and the other until the end of 2009.
Several automated and semi-automated slaughterhouses are now under construction, according to Abaza. Cairo for Poultry is set to open a Nubaria abattoir with a daily production capacity of 150,000 birds by the first quarter of 2007.
[MOF] is prepared to enter a partnership to establish abattoirs of any capacity, whether it s 10,000 or 100,000, because what s important is making them available, says Ghali.
Talib Ali, regional animal health and production officer for the UN-affiliate Food and Agriculture Organization, says the law stands to help the country better combat the spread of diseases, preventing incidents such as last year s outbreak of avian flu, but says backyard producers must be properly compensated in order to comply.
Killing a chicken in the middle of the market is really unacceptable, says Ali. It s a Middle Age practice and we have to change … Egypt is not Indonesia, it s not 30,000 islands. This is a nightmare for epidemiologists because it s really like one village, so disease spreads very easily.
In August, the government introduced imported frozen chicken to the market by authorizing the private sector to import up to 40,000 tons by the end of 2006. But despite the shortage of the locally grown product, demand lagged for frozen chicken, largely due to cost. General Importers Council President Hamdy El-Naggar said the strict guidelines set by the prime minister s decree caused the cost of importing Brazilian chickens to remain high and has kept the consumer price up to LE 5 above that of locally grown chicken.
As of press time, EPPA Vice President and spokesman Mohamed A. El-Shafei was not available for comment about the proposed law. But speaking to The Daily Star Egypt in September, El-Shafei said Egyptians, who generally continue to prefer locally grown chicken, have not been properly introduced to alternative frozen chicken mainly because of the limited quantities ordered and the high prices at which they are offered. Imported frozen chicken averages LE 12 to LE 13 per kg compared with LE 9 to LE 10 for locally grown poultry.
The Egyptian poultry industry relies on the services of 70,000 poultry men. Of 1.7 million chickens produced daily, about one-third come from backyard farms, while larger producers facilities only have the capacity to store 300,000 chickens per day, says Ali. The problem will only be compounded as production continues to near its pre avian flu level of 3 million chickens per day, Ali says, adding he expects national production to reach 2.6 million by the middle of 2007.
