Taxes restrict Pakistan exports, Cameroon charters imports

Pakistan’s poultry processing industry says it requires compensation against taxes and duties paid on ingredients and medicines imported by feed millers for the manufacturing of poultry feed. This, it says, will go a long way in assisting the sector to tap the international market. The Express Tribune reports that exports are currently “haphazard and negligible” as the industry is uncompetitive as compared to Brazil, and notes Salman Tariq, director of a leading poultry processing unit, saying Pakistan’s poultry products are 20-25% more expensive than Brazilian products.

Poultry sector appeals for subsidies

“This regulatory environment is not conducive at all and we have been in discussion with the Ministry of Commerce and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan for devising a strategy with the poultry processors for the provision of subsidy so that we become competitive with the Brazilian products in Gulf countries,” he is reported as saying. “We are not asking the government to give us a flat subsidy, but are instead highlighting that the poultry feed millers pay a hefty amount in duties and taxes on the import of ingredients and medicines for the manufacturing of poultry feed… If the government allows this, the processors can easily target Gulf countries and our exports can increase since the products we are producing are equally as good as the rest of the world.”

The paper notes that according to Tariq, Pakistan processors have about 5% share in the country’s poultry industry. Wet market prices are significantly lower than the prices of products produced at local poultry processing plants and for this reason, consumers are not inclined to buy such products.

Cameroon charters poultry from Brazil

On 22 March 2021, 4 months after Cameroon decided to temporarily ban imports of day-old chicks and hatching eggs to guard against avian influenza, the government of Cameroon has again authorised imports from Brazil. Cameroonian poultry farmers have since been gearing up to receive supplies of day-old chicks and other hatching eggs from the country. The farmers plan to join forces to make bulk purchases to reduce transport costs, reports Business in Cameroon. “The Cameroon Poultry Interprofession [IPAVIC] is currently discussing with other actors to charter flights that can carry enough hatching eggs. This will reduce import costs because from Brazil to Cameroon, the cost of transport is higher and would exceed the eggs’ purchasing price,” said François Djonou, president of IPAVIC.