Poultry Industry in the Kingdom and Vision 2030 and National Transition Programs 2020

The cultural committee of the Department of Arid Land Agriculture, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment and Arid Land Agriculture held a discussion session where Prof. Dr. Youssef Abd El-Wahab Attia, Professor of Poultry Science in the department of Arid Land Agriculture, presented a seminar entitled "Poultry Industry in the Kingdom and Vision 2030 and National Transition Programs 2020". Professor Attia discusses poultry industry as an important tool to fulfill animal protein needs of Kingdom's under the strategic objectives of the 2030 vision of the Kingdom. The vision aims to achieve prosperity and food security and sustainable Agriculture development. Professor Attia discussed the goals, mechanisms and strategic plan to achieve the initiative of the Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture to increase the level of self-sufficiency from 42-60%. Dr. Attia pointed out that the consumption per capita of the Kingdom of eggs is about 149 eggs and 41.2 kg of poultry meat and  the Kingdom imports about 1 million tons of Poultry meat of value of about $ 2.0 billion USD. The Saudis prefer fresh meat than frozen one of 4: 1 ratio. Poultry industry is one of the most promising industries in the Kingdom because of its popularity among citizens and residents due to lower prices compared to meat of sheep and cattle as well as the quality of poultry meat and its high content of nutrients and unsaturated fats and their great health benefits.

Dr. Attia also pointed out that about 12 major companies controlled poultry production in Saudi Arabia of which are the pillars of the industry are Fakieh, Al-watania and Al-marai where they produced about 80% of the production capacity. The estimated production of Kingdom is about 4 billion table eggs and 520 million of broiler chickens.
Even though, the poultry industry in the Kingdom faces some challenges, which can be summarized as follows:

1- Importation of most production requirements.

2- Diseases and high mortality rates.

3- Price fluctuations throughout the year.

4- The external dumping principle.

5 -High production cost compared to the global cost.

6. Low production standard compared to world standard production rates.
Professor Attia recommended increasing the investment in poultry industry as promising industry with reasonable job creation power and facilitating the investment in it by providing the necessary loans and funds to encourage the investment, increasing the state grants for poultry projects, exemptions of tax and customs for five years, issuing the necessary legislation to protect the local product from dumping. He also recommended establishing the National Poultry Institute as a nucleus for the development of Poultry industry in the Kingdom.