DOHA: The Qatar Chamber has urged the government to set up an agricultural city devoted entirely to poultry production to help achieve self-sufficiency in the area.
The Chamber, representative body of the private sector, has, in fact, submitted a proposal for the agricultural city project which could accommodate as many as 300 to 400 hatcheries. The Chamber’s agricultural committee, which has mooted the project idea, says the hatcheries can have three sections.
One of the sections could be for egg production, while the other for breeding chicken so they could be sold live in the market. The third section could be for chicken meat production and processing, said Mohamed bin Ahmed Al Obaidly, head of the agricultural committee.
He told this newspaper yesterday that response from the authorities concerned on the proposal was still awaited. He refused to pinpoint when asked which the authorities concerned were.
He said the agricultural city project assumed immense significance when we consider that poultry production in Qatar was just 10 percent of the requirement.
“The remaining 90 percent needs for poultry products is met through exports,” said Al Obaidly. It is not a good idea to let Qatar remain reliant on external factors to meet local poultry demand, he said. Al Obaidly cited the example of shortages of eggs being currently witnessed in Saudi Arabia which is the main exporter to Qatar.
“This can have an instant impact on the Qatari market. Watch out. Egg prices can shoot up here considerably due to the shortages in Saudi Arabia,” Al Obaidly said. One of the directors of the Chamber, he said the short supply in Saudi Arabia is because it is a major exporter to the neighbouring countries.
Al Obaidly said efforts to achieve self-sufficiency in food production in Qatar should be accelerated taking the imminent shortage of eggs and the threat of a huge price rise as a result of that, as an example.
Talking of Saudi Arabia, Al Obaidly said that due to the shortages eggs had become quite expensive in that country. The prices per crate (of 30 pieces) had gone up from QR13 to QR20.
Saudi Arabia’s trade minister has held meeting with hatchery owners and officials last Monday to convince them to reduce their prices. Another meeting is scheduled to be held shortly, said the director of the Chamber.
The Peninsula
