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Imports of poultry unrestricted despite damages to local producers
23-10-2017
Despite the repeated official statements to protect the agricultural and productive sectors, the minister of agriculture Ghazi Zeiater announced after a meeting on Friday with the Syndicate of Poultry Farmers and representatives of independent poultry farmers that the import of frozen chicken is open and cannot be regulated. He pointed to a decision by former minister Akram Shehayeb that constrained the process to a prior permit. Zeitar also disclosed an agreement with the above syndicate to secure the needs of the local market until August 2018, and a gradual reduction of import. In a related incident, An Nahar newspaper reported on Friday that the Lebanese poultry industry which employs over 20 thousand persons providing for some 20 thousand families is appealing for help. Domestic poultry, the newspaper wrote, has had a key role since 1960 securing the complete needs of local consumers until May 24, 2008, when the government then issued a directive reducing (from 70% to 20%) the customs tariffs on imported frozen chickens and poultry. On the subject, the secretary of the Lebanese Poultry Syndicate, Wiliam Butros, said what is needed today is the adoption of a protection policy for national production, noting that the poultry sector has, since 2008, been on a downward spiral, particularly with the upsurge in the importation from Brazil and the Ukraine. Butros spelled out to An Nahar that the size of import has reached around 10,000 tons, equivalent to 30 million chickens, at a time domestic production has roughly reached 80 million chickens. Butros mentioned that more than 300 farms in the country have closed since 2008 as a result of the unrestrained import, including 113 farms in Akkar alone. (An Nahar, Al Diyar, October 20 and 21, 2017)
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Friday, October 9, 2015
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