Poultry farmers rue over chicken smuggling from India

By Our Correspondent

Bharatpur, Aug 9 : The price of chicken has, of late, decreased in the country. The illegal import of chicken from India has reduced the demand for local chicken, which has resulted in a drop in prices.

Tikaram Pokharel, outgoing president of the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, said that there is a problem in the market for the sale of local chicken thanks to smuggling of chicken meat from India even though there is a ban on the import of chicken to Nepal by land.

He said that by taking advantage of the open border, the import of chicken is increasing.

"Chicken meat, which had reached Rs. 450 per kg, has now dropped below Rs. 300 per kg," said Pokharel. "The price of chicken has fallen significantly because Indian chicken is found everywhere."

In Kathmandu, the price of chicken was Rs. 345 per kg on Sunday. Due to the decline in prices, farmers are complaining that they are not even able to recover their investment in poultry, so it is necessary to stop the chicken from coming from India. 

He blamed the government was indifferent to controlling chicken and its meat being illegally imported from India.

No one has the exact data on how much chicken and meat is being imported from India now.

About 800,000 kgs of chicken meat is consumed daily in Nepal. Businessmen claim that 33 percent of the total demand for chicken is imported from India.

The Kathmandu Valley constitutes 75 percent of chicken meat consumption in Nepal.

Shiva Prasad Baral, Executive Director of Poultry Business Forum, said that although some chickens illegally imported from India have been seized and destroyed in Chitwan, Jhapa, Rupandehi, Kanchanpur, and other areas at the initiative of the police and businessmen, it is not possible to stop all import. 

"Poultry and its meat which is being brought illegally from the border area should be strictly stopped," Baral said.

"In Nepal, there is a legal provision where a health test report is required to transport chicken from one city to another. Currently, what is the health test of meat imported from the open border area?" he said. 

Janga Bahadur Belbese, the central president of the National Poultry Traders Association, admitted that chickens are now being brought in from the border area by taking risk in the name of making meat cheaper.

"Chicken bird flu is still present in various parts of India. It is important to assess the effect of diseased chickens entering Nepal secretly," he said. "Even now and then, Indian chickens are entering Nepal even though the price is Rs. 60-70 per kg cheaper in India than in Nepal."

There are 21,956 poultry farms in Nepal of which 20,483 poultry farms are only in Chitwan. In the 52.6 million broiler chickens are raised. About 60 percent of the chicken meat of the total production in Nepal is from Chitwan.