Nation reels towards poultry shortage
There's been a stunning slump popular for meat and eggs since coronavirus arrived on these shores. And the dizzying speed of which the lethal pathogen went about upending life in the country prompted many farms, slapped by unprecedented losses, to cut back on production by over fifty percent.
But the development now means the country is heading towards a poultry shortage and a price increase.
"There would be an impact in the center of the following month and the supply-demand mismatch for poultry would continue for at the least six months," said Fazle Rahim Khan Shahriar, managing director of Aftab Bahumukhi Farms.
Breeders used to hatch 1.40 crore day-old chicks weekly before coronavirus. Now, it has drop to 70-75 lakh, according to industry people.
In general, it requires a month for a batch of birds to be mature for sales and three weeks to obtain a bird from an egg.
As the nationwide movement control order took influence on March 26 to flatten the curve on coronavirus, hotels, restaurants, bakeries and fast food joints shuttered on a slump in customer footfall and the necessity for social distancing meant there have been no mass gatherings like weddings.
In a nutshell, the demand for chicken and eggs hit the pits, forcing hatcheries either to sell hatched eggs at throwaway prices or dump chicks.
Besides, the ongoing shutdown has destroyed the income of the poor and low-income people, among the key consumers of poultry products, said Mahamudul Hasan, joint secretary of the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA) for Rangpur division.
The sector has been suffering for low prices for the last eight months and the coronavirus has dealt a brand new blow.
"Some of the breeders even offered day-old chicks to farmers free of charge, but no farmers wished to take them," said Sayed Sultan Ahmed, general manager of Kazi Farms, one of the primary poultry breeders in Bangladesh.
This compelled breeders to market day-old chicks at Tk 1-2 each against the production cost of Tk 32-Tk 35, according to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC), which represents the Tk 35,000 crore-poultry industry in the united states.
The prices of broiler chicken and eggs dropped and farmers had to sell the protein at up to 50 per cent below the production cost of Tk 95-Tk 100 for each and every kilogram of broiler chicken and Tk 5.5-Tk 6 for an egg, BPICC data showed.
Prices rebounded within the last two days, said Shariful Alam Biddyut, owner of Mahin Poultry Farm in the northwestern district of Nilphamari, on April 21.
The farm has 13,500 layer chickens. It incurred losses for selling an egg at Tk 5.20 until early this week against the cost of production of more than Tk 6.
"Even the costs of layer chickens have fallen below the amount of the prices we got in the times prior to the coronavirus outbreak," said Biddyut, among the 88,000 poultry farmers in Bangladesh.
Nonetheless it is good to start to see the prices of eggs have began to recover.
"If the trend continues, we would manage to recover the losses," he added.
The rebound in prices, however, could be temporary, said Md Golam Kabir Shishir, a broiler poultry farm owner in Pabna.
The cost of broiler chickens has begun to move up as farming dropped, said Ahmed of Kazi Farms. Also, the costs of day-old chicks rose amid farmers' renewed interest in posting higher sales during Eid, scheduled for the following month.
"Prices will rise sharply if the shutdown ends and normalcy returns," he added.
The resurgence popular would be short-lived and the industry situation would turn bad following the Eid-ul-Fitr festival, said BPICC President Moshiur Rahman.
"Overall, the poultry industry situation isn't good. This can be a worst ever crisis for all of us."
The BPICC estimates that the sector incurred a loss of Tk 1,650 crore until April 11. This included the losses faced by feed millers and animal health companies.
Losing is forecast to cross Tk 3,000 crore by the end of April. "This is a huge loss," Rahman said.
Source: www.thedailystar.net
