War and economic turmoil cause Iran's chicken consumption to halve

 

Chicken consumption in Iran has fallen by about 50% over the past year, as soaring production costs, subsidy reforms and the economic fallout from the country's recent conflict with Israel and the US have shaken both poultry producers and consumers, according to an industry representative.

"The fourfold increase in chicken prices after the removal of preferential exchange rates [earlier this year] directly reduced consumers' purchasing power and cut chicken consumption by about half," said Abdollah Ghasemi, board member of the Gilan Poultry Farmers Association told ISNA, a local news outlet.

Ghasemi blamed the crisis on a combination of government policy and wartime disruptions. He said the removal of subsidised exchange rates for imported feed, vaccines and feed additives, coupled with price controls imposed during the conflict, severely squeezed poultry producers' margins.

"Production costs rose sharply and poultry farmers simply lost the ability to continue production," Ghasemi said.

Plummeting poultry production
Poultry production has plummeted dramatically in the recent months, according to official figures. Monthly chicken production dropped from 140 million birds at the beginning of the year to 94 million birds in the recent months, according to Ghasemi, while the decline in supply has recently pushed prices higher, particularly after the government announced new food voucher programmes that temporarily boosted demand.

Collapsing consumption
This year, Iranian poultry industry representatives have consistently complaining about a decline in consumption. In May, Farzad Talakesh, secretary-general of the Iran Poultry Federation, said chicken consumption had already fallen by around 25% due to soaring inflation and declining household purchasing power.

The reported collapse in chicken consumption contrasts with more optimistic estimates from Iranian authorities. Earlier this month, Iran's Ministry of Agriculture said annual per capita chicken consumption stood at 26 kg, well above the global average of 15 kg.

Amid the decline in consumption, the industry has also suffered heavy losses in the breeding sector. Ghasemi said 40 million day-old chicks were culled after producers were unable to place them, while many breeding farms slaughtered parent flocks and sold fertile eggs into the table egg market instead of using them for hatching.

War-related crisis
Feed costs have risen dramatically since the government scrapped preferential exchange rates for imported agricultural inputs. According to Ghasemi, corn prices have increased nearly fivefold, just as soybean meal.

He said the recent conflict with Israel and the US further disrupted imports and logistics, driving feed prices even higher and sharply increasing production costs.

The removal of preferential exchange rates at the wrong time, the lack of working capital for poultry farms, strict price controls during the war and rising import costs made production economically unsustainable, Ghasemi said.