Poultry farmers for level-playing field to boost exports

LAHORE: Pakistan can increase its share in $3 trillion world halal market if poultry farmers are provided with a level-playing field vis-à-vis imported processed foods, industry officials said. 

They said poultry products account for a major chunk in the total global trade volume. A total of 2,000 chickens are slaughtered every second around the world. Out of a staggering 60 billion farmed every year, 40 billion are factory grown. In Pakistan, the ratio of farm grown chicken is much higher than the global average. 

Poultry farmers, at various seminars on the sidelines of International Poultry Exhibition held in Lahore, lodged strong protests against the government policies, which facilitate zero-rated import of processed chicken, while slapping 58 percent duties on imported spices. It charges various taxes on poultry feed inputs, while feed of cattle and other livestock is duty free.

Islamic scholars have declared stunning as anti-shariah practice. Stunning is the process of rendering animals immobile or unconscious prior to slaughtering them for food. Chicken processing plants in Pakistan are bound by shariah law to slaughter without stunning the bird. Chicken in non-Muslim countries are slaughtered after stunning and they are still imported in Pakistan. 

These double standards are puzzling and hurting the local poultry farmers.  “Imports should also be subject to the same law that is applied on Pakistan food processors,” said Abdul Hye, a leading poultry businessman. He said chickens violently move around and damage their wings and some part of the value-added parts when they are slaughtered without stunning.

A shariah expert said another most common practice found in a majority of the larger abattoirs in non-Muslim countries is machine slaughter or mechanical slaughter. This is when the slaughter is carried out by a mechanical rotating blades with no Muslim slaughter man present either to perform the slaughter, or to recite the ‘Bismillah’ on each slaughter. 

Thousands of chickens are slaughtered in this manner daily. This practice is directly against the teaching of Islam and will not serve to conduct a Halal slaughter. Poultry farmers said Pakistani government should create an awareness campaign and explain the positive attributes of chicken meat slaughtering in the country. 

They said government should abolish duty on imported spices to facilitate poultry exports. They said farmers are small stakeholders, but they are creating awareness in Muslim world as a result of which substantial chicken meat orders have been placed by Qatar while Saudi Arabia has ordered small quantities for trial.