ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Domestic egg production in the Kurdistan Region has been reinvigorated by a ban on foreign imports of the product issued nine months ago, government officials have told Rudaw – though some farms say they need state assistance to get back up and running.
To protect domestic produce sales and boost the local poultry market, the Iraqi government decided to ban the import of eggs from Turkey, Iran, and the Ukraine in May of last year. The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) followed suit and put an import ban into effect.
Before the ban, only five of twelve existing egg farming projects in the Kurdistan Region were in operation. The rest had been shut down due to dominance of the market by foreign imports, which meant decreased demand for domestic eggs.
Four have reopened since the ban came into effect, but total egg output still does not meet Kurdistan Region-wide demand, according to Firas Sidiq, in charge of livestock product at the agriculture ministry. As such, currently closed farms need to be reopened and new ones established, he said.
The projects yet to resume work have called on the KRG to allow them to import egg-laying hens from Turkey to develop their projects and meet full market demand, Sidiq added.
Erbil province is home to eight of the twelve existing farms, according to data provided to Rudaw by the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Resources. Its Khwani Zerin farming project is one of the largest in the Kurdistan Region. It has partially reopened after an eight month closure.
Sartip Nazim Agha, owner of the project, told Rudaw its closure was forced by the influx of imported eggs and spread of disease. Egg production had fallen by over 90 percent in the run up to its closure, he said.
Before its losses, the project used to export 85 percent of its products to the other Iraqi cities, he said. "But recently, we’ve been selling 100 percent of our products in Erbil."
The owner of Lazha farm, also in Erbil, says foreign imports dealt his project a blow similar to that felt by Khwani Zerin.
"The influx of Iranian and Turkish imported eggs dealt a massive blow to our business. I lost all my assets so I closed the project down last year," farm owner Hassan Ahmed explained.
With the ban of foreign imports in full swing, Ahmed says now the right time to resume operations, but needs 2.5 million dollars in financial assistance to do so. He urged the KRG to compensate project owners for the financial losses they incurred when they had to close down before the ban was put in place.
Ahmed attempted to reach out for financial assistance from the Iraqi government, who he says has allocated 10 billion dinars in loans for egg projects. He said his plea was dismissed because his operations are based in the Kurdistan Region.
Though not running at their full capacity, current operational levels are more than enough to cover Erbil, according to Abdulkhaliq Abdulqadir, head of the province's livestock produce department.
"Every month, we export 13,000 surplus packs of eggs to other cities," Abdulqadir said.
With plans to open new farms and develop existing ones, Abdulqadir is optimistic that Erbil will be able to translate a boost in supply into sales outside the Kurdistan Region.
"In the future, Erbil will be able to meet the demand of some of the Iraqi provinces, too," he said.
Translation by Zhelwan Z. Wali
