“You are what you eat” is a proverbial catchphrase that points out the benefits of a healthy diet and demerits of having an unhealthy one.
“You are what you eat” is a proverbial catchphrase that points out the benefits of a healthy diet and demerits of having an unhealthy one. But what when you do not exactly know what you are actually eating? In such a scenario one feels the need to amend this phrase to look like this: “You are what you are made to eat?
This exactly has been the case in the country recently. Here, recent raids by concerned authorities have discovered sale of substandard meat, dead animals’ meat, donkey meat and harmful oil extracted from animals’ entrails. Though Punjab and especially Lahore and some other cities have been the hub of this activity, the impacts have been far-reaching. Thanks to the extensive coverage by the conventional and the social media, people all over the country have become cautious in buying meat and eating its made-ups from the market.
The worst- hit have been the sellers of mutton and beef who are now questioned by the customers about the quality and origin of their products. No doubt there is a reasonable drop in the number of mutton and beef buyers. As these animals are slaughtered at distant slaughter houses and then transported to retail outlets, the chances of verification of their quality are limited.
Against this backdrop, the poultry breeders of the country have come up with the slogan of providing a quality source of animal protein to the masses which they says is highly affordable as well. Poultry is also being portrayed as the meat source of the future, something that was stressed again and again at the International Poultry Expo 2015 (IPEX) held last month in Lahore.
Around 200 local and international companies participated in the expo and showcased their products and research. But the most interesting part was that a large number of people were interested more in clearing the perceptions about the poultry industry than knowing about the technological advancement the participating companies had made.
Quite amazingly, the poultry industry representatives were very receptive and ready to answer any question, however controversial, asked by the visitors. Besides, there was a highly interactive session with the media personnel as well, on the sidelines of the main event. During this session the office-bearers of Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) were bombarded with volleys of questions from journalists to which they responded without losing their calm.
Following the expo, Money Matters had a discussion with PPA office-bearers on the overall situation of the poultry industry in the country and the allegations of its undue patronization by the ruling elite. The appointment of Abdul Basit, a poultry industry giant, as Chairman, Punjab Board of Investment and Trade (PBIT) by the provincial Chief Minister Mian Shahbaz Sharif was also questioned.
PPA Chairman Dr Mustafa Kamal replied to most of the queries. He denied market reports that food authorities were taking action against mutton and beef sellers just to promote poultry because Mian Hamza Shahbaz Sharif had a stake in the business. “This is not the case and there is no so-called Hamza factor at play,” says Kamal. Hamza Shahbaz, he said, had opened a farm few years back to produce broilers but unluckily the market was not good at that time and he could not continue the business.
“To my knowledge they have closed down their broiler business even when they were in production, their contribution was less than 0.01 percent of the total broiler produced in the country. Now they have only one feed mill which has a share of less than 1 per cent of the total market,” Kamal says.
Kamal says poultry prices are strictly governed by supply and demand mechanism and nobody can influence the prices. He shares it with Money Matters that the poultry sector is under tremendous pressure due to over production for the last couple of years resulting in low prices. “The farmers are forced to sell below the cost of production. Many farmers have suffered huge losses and closed their business. This scenario itself shows that nobody has influenced this sector in the recent years.”
On the appointment of Abdul Basit as PBIT chairman, Kamal says to the best of his knowledge he has no business links with Punjab CM Mian Shahbaz Shahbaz and can make a categorical statement that they do not do any business together. He says Abdul Basit was chosen for the slot as he was an active member of the Lahore Chamber of Commerce and Industries (LCCI). “The government thought he may contribute towards the economic development of Punjab and to my Knowledge he is not even drawing any salary against the services rendered,” he adds.
Kamal asserts that unlike in the case of mutton and beef, customers can verify that poultry meat is of a halal bird as 95 per cent of the poultry in Pakistan is slaughtered in the streets. “Buyers can make an ante-mortem examination before the bird is slaughtered.” He says only five percent of the total birds are slaughtered and delivered by organised processing plants. These plants have their own quality control programmes which are monitored by various certifying agencies.
He adds it is not easy to use (non-slaughtered) dead birds because after their death the process of decomposition starts very quickly. In this process, proteins are broken down in to chemicals which give blue colour to the carcass. Anaerobic bacteria produce gases which are offensive and unbearable. “Chicken meat is one of the most delicate meats and starts to decompose and putrefy immediately after the death of the bird,” he explains.
Kamal says he has also heard that people are seeing the difference between chicken prices in Lahore and Karachi with suspicion and saying that the Sharif family wants to push the prices up in Punjab. He says no doubt it is being sold for Rs 150 per kg in Lahore and Rs 300 per kg in Karachi. “The answer for them is that these are two different markets. Prices are low in Lahore as all the breeders are in Lahore area and eggs and chickens are transported to Karachi which adds considerably to the cost.”
Kamal says it is not always so; sometimes this difference is more and some times less. If the prices are low in Karachi, then fewer eggs are sent to the city. This results in higher prices in coming days. It is difficult to produce chicken in Karachi than in Lahore and around, he explains.
Dr Abdul Karim Bhatti, Managing Director of Big Bird Group of Companies refutes the allegations of feeding steroids to broiler chicken. He says the poultry feed comprises 60 to 70 percent grain including maize, rice and millet, 25 percent non-animal protein in the form of soy meal etc and only 5 percent fish and animal proteins. The high performance of the poultry, he says, has resulted from extensive research and selection for almost a century. The best bird population has been used for breeding and breed improvement over the years.
Last but not the least, there is a set of demands of the poultry industry that it wants to be addressed by the government. For example Khalil Sattar, a former chairman of PPA, complains that a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) was signed with Malaysia without taking the local poultry industry on board. This, he says, has hurt the local industry as poultry products can now be imported from Malaysia without paying any duty.
Secondly, he says, many chicken products being imported are not halal as they do not meet the Pakistan Standard and Quality Control Authority’s (PSQA’s) standards of halal chicken. In Pakistan, he says, stunning (rendering chicken unconscious) through electric shock or by gas is prohibited. Under the local rules, chicken has to be hand-slaughtered by a Muslim but both Malaysia and China allow stunning during production of halal chicken meat. Further, he says, there are no restrictions on the use of pork meal in poultry feed in China. The government must look at these issues and ensure that only halal food is served to the masses. He also urges the government to provide level-playing field to the local industry so that it can compete with duty free imports.
The writers is a staff member shahzada.irfan@gmail.com
