Amid massive investment to cater to rising demand and consumption, growth of poultry products is expected to rise by 30 percent to the value of Rs 53 billion - around 4 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) - this year.
Researchers said the investment in poultry has increased by Rs 2 billion with the opening of over 5,000 new poultry farms across the country over the year to take the number of total poultry farms at around 18,000.
“New investments are coming in feed, hatchery, egg production and broiler chicken production in new urban areas where demand of poultry products is growing sharply.
Production is expected to shoot up by an all-time high rate of 30 percent this year to cross Rs 53 billion topline by next 12 months,” Dr. Til Chandra Bhattarai, a poultry researcher and poultry entrepreneur, told Republica on Sunday.
Bhattarai said investments worth more than Rs 1 billion are in the pipelines for investment for next one year in different parts of the country. With the rising demand for poultry products, existing farms are expanding their operations whereas fresh investment is also increasing in emerging poultry sectors such as Nuwakot, Kavre, Kathmandu, Udaypur, Surkhet, Kohalpur, Hetauda, Baglung, Pokhara, among others. Total investment in this sector is around Rs 32 billion till this year.
With the proliferation of poultry farms in different places, share of Chitwan district - a poultry hub - in total poultry production in the country has gone down to 30 percent from around 40 percent a couple of years back.
“We have sufficient prospect for increasing the demand for eggs and chickens in domestic market as our consumption is far below the Asian and Western countries´ level,” said Bhattarai, who is also the managing director of Chitwan-basd Pancha Ranta Group - one of the country´s largest poultry producers.
Per capita annual consumption of chicken stands at 3 kg in Nepal, well below 9 kg and 21 kg of average consumption in Asia and western countries respectively. Likewise per capita egg consumption in Nepal has been recorded at 50 pieces, which is below the 120 pieces of Asian consumption level.
According to him, Nepal poultry sector which was almost stagnant between2001 and 2005 has continued to see double-digit growth for last seven years. Last year, production of poultry products - chicks, broiler chicken, eggs and feeds - has increased by 23 percent to reach Rs 41 billion.
According to Bhattarai, former president of Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum - an umbrella organization of poultry entrepreneurs - production of broiler chicks and layers chicks reached 6.5 million heads and 650,000 heads per month respectively during the fiscal year 2010/11.
Similarly, daily production of feeds and chicken (meat) recorded at 2,200 tons and 295 tons respectively.
Around 57.8 million heads of commercial broilers have been kept in the poultry farms throughout the country. Around three million pieces of eggs are produced everyday in the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment