The prices of eggs and chicken are likely to go up by 30-40 per cent as the poultry industry is facing severe crisis due to abnormal increase in the price of poultry feed, especially soya meal and maize. Trade manipulations and soya meal exports are said to be affecting the prices in domestic market.
Mr D. Sudhakar, president, APPF, said, “The price of maize, which was Rs 700-800 per quintal two years ago, has escalated to Rs 1,200 per quintal and that of soya has gone up to Rs 3,200 from Rs 1,400 per quintal. As a result, the cost of production per egg has increased to Rs 2.75 and that of broilers to Rs 70 per live kg.”
Hoarding of large quantities of soyabean for speculative trading and the exports are the main reason for increase in prices of soyabean. “We have, therefore, made our representations to the Central agriculture minister Mr Saratchandra Pawar to allow export only after ensuring availability of necessary stock for domestic industry and also ban forward trading. Besides, we request the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh to waive the import duty of 15 per cent on maize imports,” added Mr Sudhakar.
Further, the Central agriculture minister has been requested to allot damaged wheat or paddy from FCI godowns at subsidised rates to about five million small and marginal poultry farmers. AP produces about seven crore eggs per day that is one-third of the country’s egg production and three crore broilers per month, one tenth of the country’s broiler production, and provides employment to over six lakh people in the state. The poultry industry is contributing not less than Rs 60,000 crore to GNP and has created jobs for around 3.5 million people in the country.