Unfit Vehicles Cause Hefty Losses to Poultry Farms

Some 12 million day-old chickens are lost as a result of transportation by unfit vehicles, causing around 7 trillion rials ($166.66 million) in losses to chicken farmers, the secretary of Day-Old Chicken Producers Association said. Gholamali Fareghi made the announcement during the international conference titled “Transport Management in Poultry Industry” on Wednesday, Mehr News Agency reported.  It was announced during the conference that agreements have been reached to import specialized vehicles for the transportation of day-old chickens into Iran from the Netherlands. More than one billion day-old chickens are produced in Iran every year. The country is ranked the seventh biggest chicken producer in the world, with chicken meat output reaching over 2.2 million tons, Hassan Rokni, an advisor to Agriculture Minister Mahmoud Hojjati, said during the conference. Iran’s per capita consumption of chicken is twice the global average, as Iranians consume 28 kilograms while the global average is 14-15 kilograms. Last Iranian year (March 2017-18), 1.26 billion broiler chickens and 38 million egg-laying chickens were produced in Iran.