A pipe dream sans a policy

There has been a clamour among local businessmen to transform our country’s export gloom into a rich boom by tapping into the multi-billion halal food market worldwide. But no government has been able to muster an appetite for crafting effective policies that would enable Pakistan to pursue an export-led growth strategy and profit from a market that is currently valued at more than $30 billion. By the next few years, this market is expected to double. And much of the world, especially countries like Australia and Brazil, and a raft of multinationals have been awake to the potential of the halal food trade and have been doing something concrete about it.

Poultry alone can be a major source of foreign exchange if the government can draw up a proper strategy to increase exports of unconventional items. The success of the plan, however, will depend on whether poultry producers are given the right facilities and incentives as well as a level-playing field. It is not hard to figure out why the Middle East or the Central Asian states and Russia are being seen by our poultry producers as markets of primary interest. They together with Europe with its fast growing Muslim population are importing record amounts of chicken and in the years to come will throw up a wealth of opportunities. Our poultry producers, it seems, are dreaming of huge export revenues. Their optimism for the moment can be compared somewhat unfavourably to a sort of alchemical gold. Despite poultry being the country’s second-largest industry, we haven’t moved beyond the unorganised sector as we continue to sell chicken meat at makeshift stalls. Unlike top broiler-producing countries, Pakistan has been able to process just 5pc of its total poultry production for value-addition in the organised sector. This can be blamed on adverse tax policies and the absence of a regulatory framework. To boost competitiveness of our poultry industry in overseas markets, the government needs to cut the cost of doing business and restore the zero-rated status for the industry.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 8^th, 2017.

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