By: Mahmoud Salah Eldin

Cairo – Mubasher: The decision by Egypt’s prime minister to exempt poultry imports from customs duties caused anger among poultry producers in Egypt.

PM Sherif Ismail decided on Tuesday to exempt poultry imports from customs duties by about 30% for 6 months, starting from 10 November 2016 till 31 May 2017.

Companies and producers described the decision as a shock to the poultry industry in Egypt, amid high production input and Egyptian pound devaluation, adding that the decision will pressure poultry companies' profits.

The decision was met with anger among local producers, who said that it would negative impact the national industry as it did in 2006 during the ‘Swine Flu’ crisis.

Mansoura Poultry's chairman said that the exemption decision destroys a domestic industry that feeds around 4 to 5 million citizens.

Abdul Razeq Abdul Ghani added that this move raises the demand on the US dollar, while Egypt is suffering a shortage in hard currency.

The company's chairman expects that the government to keep implementing the decision despite its harmful impact on the local industry.

Egyptian Poultry Association member Al Sayed Mishaly described the decision as a "random decision in a sensitive period of time."

He added that it will harm the small breeders, which represent 70% of the production, that were suffering lately from 100% rise in feedstock prices.

The price of one tonne of imported poultry ranges between $1,500 and $1,600, so that the price of chicken reaches EGP 28, compared to the price of the local one of EGP 22.

Moreover, the poultry division in the Chamber of Commerce in Egypt criticized the decision, saying that it will have negative impact on the local industry and its workers.

The division added that it called more than one time on raising the tariff to 40% instead of 30%, as it is the only protection for the national industry, but the government cancelled it instead.

In a note submitted yesterday to the water resources and agriculture committee in the parliament, the division requested the government to reconsider the decision and to cancel it for the sake of the national industry.

On the other hand, the head of the division, Rashad Qorany, said that the decision is to fill the current 40% gap in production and is a temporary one.

He noted that Egypt's production amounts to 700 million tonnes, but the 2016 production is estimated at 540 million tonnes, as a result for the diseases and bad industrial regulation, added to higher feedstock prices.

Translated by: Sara Ghali