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Strategies & Market Trends : India Coffee House -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: JPR who wrote (10813)	2/27/2000 2:09:00 PM
From: JPR	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 12475

Where is the BEEF? - remember the commercial. No offence to Hindus intended--- Pakistani Govt's Policy: Don't ask ; don't eat- imposition of complete ban on serving food at wedding/valima parties at weddings changes-- President Clinton may not be served his CHICKEN TIKKA MASAALA at the stop over in pakistan. Too bad - IT IS THE LAW OF THE LAND--JPR Govt likely to allow chicken dish at weddings By Our Correspondent ISLAMABAD, Feb 26. The federal government is likely to allow one dish, exclusively of chicken, at the marriage functions by introducing an amendment to the Marriage Ordinance 1997 to develop the local poultry industry and stop regular increase in the prices of meat. Official sources in the finance ministry told Dawn on Saturday the ministry of food, agriculture, and livestock (MINFAL) had, in this regard submitted a summary before the economic coordination committee (ECC) of the cabinet to allow one dish of chicken at the marriage parties. Giving reasons behind this demand, the sources said the agriculture ministry had pointed out that to the ECC that the commercial poultry sector had played a vital and important role in bridging the gap between supply and demand of animal proteins and in keeping the prices of beef and mutton at reasonable level. According to the sources, the MINFAL adds that the poultry sector is, however, presently confronted with the worst-ever crisis of its history due to the increase in its cost of production. The MINFAL adds that the imposition of complete ban on serving food at wedding/valima parties have further aggravated the crisis and poultry sales have further gone down by 40 per cent. "This drop in production and demand have further reduced the price of marketable boilers", it adds. The agriculture ministry says the present cost of production of live broiler is Rs48 per kilogram against the farmgate price Rs40 a kilo which is subject to fluctuation between Rs35 and Rs42 per kilogram, which implies that the poultry farmers have to dispose of their ready stocks at losses which may lead to closure of farms. The sources quoted the agriculture ministry as saying that the non-utilization of the available farm capacity has resulted in wastage of huge investment in the sector, whereas the sector needs to be boosted to meet the national needs of animal protein foods. According to the MINFAL, the past instability in government policy and the withdrawal of incentives provided by the government for development of the sector has resulted in a disastrous situation in the poultry sector. The promulgation of Ordinance No. XLVIII of 1997 Marriage Act (Prohibition of Wasteful Expenses) has reduced the demand of poultry and poultry products, resulting in huge losses to the poultry farmers. "A survey conducted by the Poultry Research Institute, Rawalpindi, has revealed that since the promulgation of the Ordinance, 40 per cent poultry farms have not put in replacement flocks and the farms are being closed. This is adversely affecting the poultry production and it is feared that this loss in capacity may be permanent." The sources quoted the agriculture ministry as saying that development efforts and incentives provided by the government had resulted in investment of Rs32 billion, establishment of 280 hatcheries; feed mills; 18.279 commercial farms and 4,300 breeding farms; giving production of millions of layers, 170 million broilers, 2,374 million table eggs and 189,000 tons of poultry meat during 1998-99. It adds that lately the growth in the poultry sector, which was over 10 per cent during the early 90s, is now stagnant and 40 per cent capacity is lying idle. "In order to utilize this idle capacity and to protect further decline in the poultry sector, remedial measures need to be adopted", sources quoted the MINFAL as telling the ECC. The MINFAL has suggested that in order to sustain high growth rate in the poultry sector and to save the sector from permanent losses, Marriage Ordinance, 1997, needs to be reviewed. The sources said it was felt that neither the withdrawal of the Ordinance was in the interest of the people nor its continuation, and such an Ordinance would be in the interest of the industry. Therefore, it is recommended that the Marriage Ordinance may be continued and so amended that " one dish," based on exclusive chicken meat, be served at wedding/valima ceremonies to encourage poultry production, the sources quoted the MINFAL as recommending to the ECC. dawn.com