Poultry industry and ways to solve its problems

The food processing comes at the top of the vital industrial sectors, which contribute a high percentage to the net national income of many of these countries.

It is a group of diverse and purposeful works to provide people in the world with their nutritional needs. We can also define the science related to food processing as a set of theories and practical applications related to all stages of food manufacturing from production, storage, marketing and distribution until reaching the stage of delivery to the consumer.

– In view of the specificity of the Islamic world and its reservations on foreign production, especially the food industries in which the animal is a party, such as the manufacture of meat and its derivatives, which are subject to high control over the method of slaughter, the quality of meat and its compatibility with the provisions of Islamic law.

– All these reasons have created an increasing demand for the national product. However, despite these advantages, we find that national products are retreating in front of the encroachment of foreign products that have adopted a dumping policy to invade Arab and Gulf markets, in particular with regard to the poultry industry, which threatens the continuity of the national product. This is in addition to some other features that distinguished the foreign product over its national counterpart, including but not limited to:

1. The high costs of production and investment for national products compared to foreign products, due to their total dependence on foreign technology and technology, as well as raw materials.

2. The suitability of the foreign environment for poultry farming compared to the local environment, as many studies indicated that the most suitable temperature range for poultry farming is between 28-30 degrees Celsius, which lies between latitudes 30-35, and this is of course located in most of the major poultry-exporting countries. And in the Gulf countries, where temperatures rise in most months of the year, which forces poultry breeders to adopt a closed system, which leads to higher production costs, as the system prepares the appropriate atmosphere for poultry farming by cooling in summer and heating in winter. This is in addition to the high levels of mortality.

3. While it is possible for poultry exporting countries to adopt open systems.

4. The difficulty of competing with the foreign product in terms of quality and price.

The dumping policy is one of the immoral phenomena that many foreign countries have been pursuing, which means selling a commodity in a foreign country at a price less than its production costs if the market is a competitive market or less than the selling price in the country of origin if the market is a monopolistic market, all with the aim of excluding The local product from the market and harming the local industry.

The poultry sector in the Gulf market is considered one of the most targeted sectors by poultry exporting countries such as Brazil, France and others. Whereas, the poultry market in the Gulf has witnessed, in recent years, a steady growth in demand, for the following reasons:

1. The increasing demand for white meat compared to red meat as a result of changing the culture of the dietary pattern in society.
2. The steady population growth in the Gulf countries in terms of citizens and expatriates with the aim of working or investing.

In addition, we find that companies exporting poultry, whether in Brazil or China, are currently focusing on the Gulf markets, especially in light of the stifling economic crisis experienced by the economies of European countries, in contrast to the economies of the Gulf countries that have large liquidity, which qualifies them to receive more imported goods.

Population growth in Saudi Arabia between 2005-2014
The number of people in millions
Year 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2014
(prophecy)
Citizens 16.9 17.4 17.8 18.2 18.7 21.1
Expats 6.4 6.3 6.5 6.8 7.0 8.5
Total 23.2 23.7 24.3 25.0 25.7 29.7

The wave of dumping pursued by these countries angered many local farmers, which led them to refer the matter to the competent authorities in the state to protect the local product.

– Last February, Okaz newspaper reported that the group of investors in the eastern region demanded to stop dumping the local market with frozen poultry, noting that the steady increase in imports led to a state of panic among national producers, as the prices of national chilled poultry are 10-10.5 riyals, compared to 6-6.5 riyals. For imported poultry weighing 1000 g.
And the Arab and Islamic countries in the past years, before the economies of globalization, protected the local product in several ways, including subsidizing local goods to be sold at a competitive price for the foreign product.

In addition to imposing high taxes on foreign products to limit their competition with national goods. However, in light of the new global economy, and since many Arab and Islamic countries have entered into the system of World Trade Organization agreements, we find that it is difficult to support the national product in the way that we used to know in the past, which contradicts the principles of global trade that call for price liberalization and non-subsidization. National products versus foreign products, so that the market mechanism or the mechanism of supply and demand remains the sole arbiter for the customer to choose between the commodities offered in the market.

In light of the failure of all previous policies to protect the local product, the question remains:

What are the recent trends to enhance the competitiveness of the national product?

The challenge before the national product or national poultry in our case remains that poultry projects and poultry processing plants adopt an administrative and operational strategy that supports product quality and helps reduce costs, and thus offer the national product with high quality that rises to the level of international quality and competitive low prices. foreign product prices. This is in addition to supporting the national product enhancers, such as the preference of the Gulf market for fresh versus frozen.

And the strategy of comprehensive quality management and food safety is one of uhThe administrative systems that can be adopted in the aforementioned competitive conditions in order to enhance the competitiveness of the national product, where all the studies conducted confirmed the positive impact of total quality management on reducing production costs and upgrading the quality of products to a level comparable to global goods. As for the role of the state, it must obligate the foreign exporter to national standards, such as those of the Saudi Standards Organization (SASO) or Gulf standards, in order to set parameters for this dumping. ARASCO is considered one of the leading companies in the field of quality and food safety, led by the ARASCO food sector, which obtained (ISO9001-2008 and ISO 2200-2005), which was a pioneering experience in the field of quality and food safety (QMS & FSMS), which put it in the ranks of companies Manufacturing the first poultry in the Kingdom despite its recent entry into the field, stemming from its interest in quality and the adoption of modern technology under an innovative, forward-looking and supportive management of everything new in the world of technology and a qualified work team to manage change.