Iranian Poultry Farmers Protest Lack of Animal Feed

Iranian poultry farmers gathered outside the Ministry of Agriculture on Saturday to protest government's failure to deliver essential animal feed.

Despite having paid for soybean and corn inputs over a year ago, the group of angry farmers from poultry production units in Qazvin province, have not received their orders from the Ministry of Agriculture, nor have they been reimbursed. Their accrued losses over this period amount to 100,000 billion rials ($200 million).

The protestors held placards berating the Ministry for placing them in a crippling financial situation and that they had reached breaking point.

They also raised additional concerns at the practice of government agencies buying their produced poultry at slashed prices using coercive measures and threats.

Supply of livestock and poultry production inputs is a systemic and ongoing issue. It has been more than a year since subsidies were reduced and cuts were made to the allocation of discounted foreign currency to essential goods importers. This has resulted in a disturbing cycle of shortages, delivery delays, and outright unavailability of necessary production inputs, negatively impacting the livelihoods of the country's livestock and poultry producers.