A total of 202,246 tons of poultry meat were produced in Iran’s official slaughterhouses in the first month of the current fiscal year (March 21-April 20), indicating an 11.7% rise compared with last year’s corresponding period.
According to the Statistical Center of Iran, chicken accounted for 197,099 tons or 97.4% of the overall production while other types of poultry, such as turkey, quail, ostrich and partridge, amounted to 5,213 tons or 2.6% of the overall poultry output during the period under review.
Export duties on five agricultural products, including poultry meat, egg, baby formula, cream and fat, have been removed amid the surplus emerging in the domestic market, Agriculture Minister Javad Sadatinejad said recently.
The decision came after prices in the local market shot up dramatically following the liberalization of the prices of essential goods, for the import of which the Iranian government allocated heavy subsidies for years.
Now, instead of allocating cheap dollars at the rate of 42,000 rials per dollar, locally known as Preferential Foreign Currency, to import essential goods, including corn, soymeal, unprocessed oil, oilseeds and barley, in addition to wheat, flour and medicine, the government is depositing cash directly to the account of income deciles 1 to 9.
“Until now, we have been paying to producers [read importers] but now the subsidies go to consumers. In fact, the Preferential Foreign Currency has not been ceased, rather its allocation method has changed,” President Ebrahim Raisi said in a televised speech on the eve of the introduction of the move earlier this month.
In his speech, Raisi emphasized that the removal of cheap dollar allocation will not lead to a price rise in wheat, flour, medicine and gasoline. However, the move has led to a dramatic rise in the prices of both essential and non-essential goods.
Also known as necessity or basic goods, essential goods are products consumers will buy, regardless of changes in income levels.
The prices of other food products have also risen suddenly in a ripple effect, which consequently led toa decline in consumption.
