Pakistan's poultry exports lag despite industry's growth potential, says Aurangzeb

Pakistan’s poultry industry has significant potential to expand exports but needs improvements in disease management, feed costs and cold-chain logistics to compete in international markets, Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb said.

Addressing the 26th International Poultry Exhibition as chief guest at the Expo Centre, Aurangzeb said poultry exports accounted for around $23–24 million of Pakistan’s total meat exports of $530 million, “this demonstrates the enormous potential of the poultry industry, not only in Pakistan but also in international markets”.

“Pakistan is the world’s 11th-largest poultry producer. The question now is: how can we first break into the top 10 and then move into the top five?” he said.

He identified the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, Central Asia and Southeast Asia as potential markets for Pakistani poultry products, saying the industry could play a greater role in expanding the country’s meat exports.

“There is considerable export potential. We have the GCC countries, our brotherly nations, as potential markets. New opportunities are also emerging in Central Asia, including Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, as well as in Southeast Asia,” he said.

Aurangzeb said the government was prepared to engage with industry representatives on taxation issues ahead of the next budget, adding that tax policy concerns raised by the sector would be reviewed.

However, he said taxation was only one part of the challenge, with disease prevention, feed and other input costs, processing facilities and cold-chain logistics also requiring attention to enable export growth.

The minister said the government was actively working on these issues and emphasised the importance of a comprehensive approach to unlocking the industry’s domestic and international potential.

“I want to emphasise this point because, although it is not specific to the poultry industry, sales tax is collected from consumers. If a business collects that tax from the consumer but does not pass it on to the treasury, the Finance Division or the Federal Board of Revenue (FBR), it is difficult to imagine a more serious act of wrongdoing.

“We have therefore taken several steps to curb this evasion, beginning with the sugar industry.”

“The revenue recovered by curbing sales tax evasion will, in turn, be deployed to support sectors such as poultry that have substantial growth potential,” he said.