The Council of Ministers has given the go-ahead for the import of 120,000 tons of chicken at the exchange rate of 42,000 rials per dollar.
The decision, which came after a significant rise in chicken prices in recent months, is aimed at meeting domestic demand, Fars News Agency reported.
Latest data released by the Statistical Center of Iran show a total of 472,700 tons of poultry meat were produced at Iran’s official slaughterhouses in the fourth quarter of last Iranian year (Dec. 21, 2020-March 20).
Chicken accounted for 461,600 tons or 97.6% of the overall production while turkey, quail, ostrich and partridge amounted to 11,100 tons or 2.4% of the overall poultry output during the period under review.
The average weight of each chicken supplied in Q4 stood at 1.9 kg, turkey 9.1 kg, quail 0.3 kg and other types of poultry weighed an average of 1.6 kg.
According to Hassan Abbasi Maroufan, Government Trading Corporation of Iran's commercial affairs deputy, per capita consumption of chicken in Iran is 28 kilograms per year, which shows that overall consumption amounts to 2.2 million tons.
Statistics by the Agriculture Ministry show more than 2.5 million tons of chicken was produced and supplied to the market in the last fiscal year (March 2020-21), IRNA reported.
Deputy Agriculture Minister Morteza Rezaie recently said chicken farmers’ failure to supply broiler chicken older than 50 days at government-mandated prices amounts to hoarding and so punishable by not only a fine, but also denial of access to the ministry’s websites for seeking subsidized poultry feed.
Sodayf Beykzadeh, director general of the Ministry of Industries, Mining and Trade’s Commercial Affairs Bureau, said recently, “Domestic consumption of chicken stands at between 6,000 and 7,000 tons per day. When there is a shortage in local market, the government taps into the country’s strategic reserves, which stands at around 30,000 tons. This year, imports will take place from Turkey and Brazil to meet the domestic demand.”
Agriculture Minister Kazem Khavazi has said that all chicken farms have been obliged to supply their 45-day-old chicken to slaughterhouses.
According to Habib Asadollah-Nejad, the deputy head of Iran Chicken Farmers Union, the price of each kilogram of chicken in the neighboring markets is at $1.5, which is higher than prices in the local market. “This has tempted intermediaries and smugglers to buy chicken produced with subsidized poultry feed and sell them illegally to the regional and neighboring countries,” he added.
Some poultry plants sell their day-old chicken to neighboring countries despite receiving subsidized poultry feed from the government.
According to Asadollah-Nejad, the outbound trafficking of day-old chicken has resulted in the shortage of the product in the local markets and increase in prices.
“The government has set the price of a kilogram of chicken at 249,000 rials [about $1]; retailers across the country are required to comply with the decision,” he was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
Abbas Tabesh, the head of Iran Consumer and Producer Protection Organization, says there is surplus chicken meat production in all Iranian provinces, which means the government has to take extreme measures against middlemen and smugglers who cause disruptions in the domestic market.
Official statistics show Iran exported 7,000 tons of chicken worth over $13.28 million during the first quarter of last fiscal year (March 20-June 20).
The three top destinations of Iran’s chicken meat during the three-month period were Afghanistan with 4,116 tons worth $8.19 million, Iraq with 2,523 tons worth $3.6 million and Venezuela with 264 tons worth $585,205, Rouhollah Latifi, spokesman of the Islamic Republic of Iran Customs Administration, was quoted as saying by Mehr News Agency.
