Chief Organiser International Poultry Expo-2012 Khalid Saleem Malik has said Pakistan will capture world’s main markets by enhancing export of poultry products during the next five years.
Talking to the media here on Sunday, he said poultry had become one of the biggest profit earning industries in Pakistan with 25,000 poultry farm houses and involving 1.5 million people during the last 10 years.
“The poultry sector is the most organised in agro-based sectors in Pakistan that contributes 35 to 40 per cent to total meat consumption, while production of mutton has declined by 10 to 20 percent during the last decade,” he added. Khalid Saleem who was flanked by Javed Bukhari and Zulfiqar Hussain said that an International Poultry Expo-2012 was being held under the aegis of the Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) between September 28 and 30 at the Expo Centre Lahore. Besides poultry dealers, breeders and hatchery owners, delegates from other countries would also attend it.
Answering a question, he said after rising prices of poultry feed, it had become difficult to run hatcheries. He called for government support and incentives for a healthy poultry industry.
He said after skyrocketing prices of mutton, chicken meat was the only commodity that was within the reach of the poor. Answering a question, Khalid Saleem said that their aim was to raise per capita consumption of chicken meat and eggs in the country.