There are now more than 2,000 poultry farms in the region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq, with an annual output of almost 190,000 metric tons (mt) of meat.
Head of the regional poultry industry council, Haider Farhan, told Rudaw that poultry production in Kurdistan has increased dramatically since 2014, when an economic crisis shifted employment prospects for local people from well-paid government jobs to other opportunities, such as farming.
Output has risen by 50 percent in the last five years as the result of 338 new registered poultry farms, and a further 300 unofficial enterprises, according to a senior official in the regional government.
In 2016, the regional poultry association estimated that the 1,200 poultry farms in Kurdistan were producing nearly 120,000mt of chicken meat.
Much of Kurdistan’s production has traditionally been destined for other parts of Iraq. However, the chicken trade has been subject to temporary bans as the result of changing political relations with the Baghdad government. Fluctuations in the trade have created additional challenges for local producers, according to Farhan.
Iraq imports poultry meat from Turkey, Brazil, the U.S., and Ukraine, according to the Ministry of Trade and Industry.
Most recent figures for Iraq’s poultry meat sector from FAOstat, the statistical arm of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), date back to 2013, when chicken production was estimated at 85,630mt. FAO estimates that national hen egg output has also been rising in recent years, reaching 36,500mt in 2017.
Identifying possible future demand for the meat and eggs of exotic species, Rudaw reports that one Kurdistan entrepreneur has recently introduced ostriches into the region for the first time. The birds were imported from Australia and Africa.
