Some 100 companies from 18 foreign countries and host Bangladesh are taking part in the three-day show to display poultry rearing equipment and provide information on scientific methods of farming.

Prime Minister Khaleda Zia will inaugurate the '4th International Poultry Show and Seminar 2005' at Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre in Sher-e-Bangla.

World Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh is organising the international gathering where experts will provide farmers with information on scientific farming.

At a press conference yesterday at Jatiya Press Club, World Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh President Moshiur Rahman, said, "As population is growing, the country needs cheap protein, which can be provided by poultry."

According to industry sources, on an average each Bangladeshi consumes 35 eggs and 1.9 kg of broiler meat a year. The yearly broiler meat intake is 3.9 kg in Pakistan, 33.3 kg in Malaysia, 14 kg in Thailand.

Some 500 crore eggs and 2.75 lakh metric tonne of broiler meat are consumed in Bangladesh a year. The total value of the poultry products is over Tk 4,000 crore. If the broiler meat intake rises by only 0.5 kg it will revolutionise the sector, industry sources said.

"In Bangladesh one comes to poultry business only being influence by people around without any knowledge on modern scientific method to rear chicken. So, sometimes business goes awry," Moshiur said.

The show will bring all scientific information about poultry farming from around the globe. Farmers will have access to every information and can also compare equipment, feed and medicine of different companies, said Moshiur Rahman, a pioneer in Bangladesh's poultry industry and managing director of Paragon Poultry Ltd.

He said Bangladesh has started exporting poultry feed and hatching eggs and soon it can export broiler to overseas markets. "Bangladesh has a huge advantage of not facing the onslaught of bird flu that swept some Asian countries. So, we are in a good position to export poultry items," he said.

He said KFC and A&W, two American fast food chain, are eyeing Bangladesh market as a good source of broiler poultry. If the two international brands use local broiler, then Bangladeshi broiler meat will automatically get international acceptability, he said.

He said apart from importing three lakh layer and 20 lakh broiler parent stocks, the country also produce about three lakh broiler parent stocks. Local companies will be able to meet 80 percent of broiler parent stock demand by one year.

Md Morshed Alam, vice-president of World Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh and convenor of the show, said companies from Belgium, China, Turkey, Myanmar, Vietnam, Holland, US, Singapore, Switzerland, India and Germany will take part in the show.

There will be 56 stalls for foreign and 84 for local companies. The fair will remain open from 9:00am to 6:00pm everyday. The entry is free for all. On the sidelines of the event, poultry science experts from Holland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will present 33 papers on the sector.

MA Salek, vice-president, and AKM Alamgir, treasurer of World Poultry Science Association-Bangladesh, also spoke at the function.