Iraqi Kurdistan poultry industry has dramatically increased over the past five years. Haider Farhan, head of Kurdistan Region’s poultry industry High Council: “There are now 2,000 chicken farms in the Kurdistan Region, producing nearly 190 tons of meat annually.”

“Production has increased by 50 percent over the last five years” confirms Ramazan Mohammed, head of the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG)’s agriculture and water resources directorate. “We have documented the opening of 338 new official poultry farms during that time, plus about 300 unregistered ones.”

Iraq is the main buyer of Kurdistan’s chicken. Annually, Kurdistan Region’s businessmen and companies buy at least 100-130 thousand tons of live chickens from Kurdistan’s farms and send them to the rest of Iraq alive. Given an average price of 2,000 dinars for each kilo, the trade isworth US$ 216 million.

Iraq imports chicken from 19 countries, the lion’s share coming from Turkey, Brazil, USA and Ukraine, according to official figures from Iraq’s Ministry of Trade and Industry.