Pakistani poultry is going global, or at least that is the ambition. Adviser to the Prime Minister on Industries and Production Haroon Akhtar Khan has stressed the need for a comprehensive export push for processed poultry products, arguing that Pakistan must move decisively to win a share of global markets for value added chicken products.
The call for a processed poultry export strategy reflects a wider shift in how Pakistan thinks about its farm economy. For decades, the country’s agricultural exports have leaned heavily on raw and semi processed commodities, from rice to raw cotton, leaving most of the value addition to buyers abroad. Processed poultry flips that logic. A frozen, packaged, ready to cook product captures far more value per bird than a live one, and it is exactly the kind of manufactured food export that growing middle classes across the Gulf, Central Asia and beyond are buying in ever larger quantities.
The economics of the push are compelling. Value added exports mean more jobs in processing plants, more foreign exchange for the national exchequer, and a stronger farm economy all the way back to the poultry farmer. Processing also smooths out the brutal price cycles of the domestic poultry market, where gluts crash farm gate prices and shortages send retail prices soaring. An export outlet gives producers a second market to sell into, stabilising incomes and encouraging the investment in modern hatcheries, feed mills and cold chains that the industry needs.
Getting there will require more than ambition. Global food markets are exacting customers: halal certification that buyers actually trust, processing plants that meet international hygiene standards, reliable cold chain logistics from farm to port, and the marketing muscle to compete with established exporters like Brazil and Thailand. Each of these is a project in itself, and the government’s comprehensive export push will be judged on whether it delivers the boring infrastructure of trade facilitation rather than just the announcements.
Still, the direction of travel is right. Pakistan has the raw material in abundance, a large and growing poultry industry, and natural halal credentials that are a genuine competitive advantage in Muslim majority import markets. If the policy follow through matches the adviser’s rhetoric, processed poultry could become one of the country’s quieter export success stories, the kind that creates jobs in small cities and brings foreign exchange without fanfare.
