KRG: Kurdistan Region Exports Over 3 Billion Eggs And 350,000 Tonnes Of Chicken Annually
The KRG Agriculture Ministry is formally requesting all government ministries to use domestic products in their contracts, covering security forces, hospitals, and prisons, to create a guaranteed market that protects local producers from cheap Turkish and Iranian imports now entering duty-free
ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) - The Kurdistan Region's poultry sector has reached full self-sufficiency with annual egg production of nearly 4.5 billion units and chicken meat output three times domestic need, enabling annual exports of more than 3 billion eggs and 350,000 tones of chicken to other Iraqi markets, but a Baghdad decision to remove customs tariffs on imported foreign products has flooded local markets with cheap imports and created serious concern among producers and the Agriculture Ministry, Qaraman Qadir, spokesman for the KRG Ministry of Agriculture, told Kurdistan 24.
Qadir said that because domestic production now exceeds self-sufficiency, the ministry has formally written to all KRG ministries that hold contracts with companies, requiring them to use domestic products rather than importing from abroad, as a measure to protect local production and absorb the surplus currently accumulating in markets.
Despite the sector's strategic achievement of full self-sufficiency over recent years and its role as a net exporter to other Iraqi cities, Baghdad's decision to remove customs tariffs on externally imported products — particularly from Türkiye and Iran has caused markets to be flooded with cheap foreign goods and inflicted serious damage on domestic producers. The Agriculture Ministry is therefore working through government contracts — covering food supplies for security forces, hospitals, and prisons to create a guaranteed absorption market for domestic production and protect existing projects from the competitive damage caused by the tariff removal.
The Kurdistan Region's poultry and egg production sector has undergone major strategic growth in recent years, reaching full self-sufficiency in a way that has transformed the Region from a net importer to a significant net exporter. Annual egg production of nearly 4.5 billion units allows more than 3 billion eggs to be exported annually to other Iraqi markets after meeting domestic needs. Chicken meat production at three times domestic consumption allows 350,000 tones to be exported annually. The sector's achievement is now being threatened at the precise moment of its greatest success by an external tariff policy decision that the KRG had no role in making.