Poultry industry: The price of chicken feed is increasing

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Along with chicken feed, prices of duck, fish and cattle feed have also increased. It may increase the price of animal meat again

The prices of farm chickens and eggs in the market have become somewhat bearable. When buying chicken meat and eggs, customers are spending a little less than before. But the price of poultry feed in the market has started increasing again. If the price of poultry feed increases, the cost of producing chickens for the farmers will also increase. This additional cost will go to the buyers.

Talking to farmers, traders and importers of chicken food, it is known that the price of chicken food in the market has increased up to three and a half Tk. per kg in the last week. The price of a 50 kg bag of food has increased up to Tk 175. Earlier, a bag of poultry feed was available for Tk 3,400 to Tk 3,500, now it is being sold at Tk 3,575 to Tk 3,675.

The price of broiler chicken and golden chicken feed varies from Tk 100 to Tk 150 per bag. Besides broiler and golden chicken, the price of layer chicken and duck feed has increased by a minimum of Tk 2 per kg.

Fish and beef food have also been included in the price hike list. The price of these two items of food has increased up to a maximum of two and a half Tk per kg.

The major ingredients of poultry feed are corn and soy meal. Apart from this, the number of other ingredients including rice bran, canula mill, wheat flour, and common salt is 15 to 20. The ingredients are more or less depending on the quality of the food. Most of these materials are import-dependent.

The importers claim that the price of poultry feed is increasing due to the renewed volatility in the currency market over the price of the US dollar.

However, as always, small farmers complain about the increase in the price of chicken feed towards the syndicate of the production companies. They claim that these companies increase the price of chicken food from time to time. Small farmers are in danger. For that, they want the government's intervention in fixing the price.

Bangladesh Poultry Association (BPA) president Suman Howladar said, "Farmers were doing well for some time. Now the price of chicken food has been increased again. This will increase the pressure on the farmers. Many will leave the production. Then corporate organizations will involve them in contact farming. According to the contract, the farmers will not have any role in determining the price of chicken and eggs. Virtually everyone will be held hostage.

According to the organization, there are about 220 registered companies producing poultry feed in the country. Of these, 50 to 60 are now in production. One-third of these factories are not fully operational; That is, these factories are partially carrying out production activities. For this situation, the owners of feed-mills blame the increase in the price of raw materials in the international market and the instability of the dollar market in the country.

According to the calculations of the government organization Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), broiler chicken is now being sold in the market at the rate of Tk 160 to 170 per kg. The farm's chicken eggs are being sold at Tk 38 to Tk 42 per hali (4 pieces). A kg of golden chicken is below Tk 300.

Khajal Uddin, a chicken farmer from Narsingdi, said that many farmers have suffered losses due to the current market price of chicken and eggs. As feed prices increase again, production costs will increase further. Then the struggle for survival of the farmers will start again. Today the poultry business is not as profitable as it used to be, rather the risk is high.

Nazrul Islam, general secretary of the Feed Industries Association of Bangladesh, said that import letters of credit (LC) have to be opened with a margin of up to 120 percent. Still, the dollar is not available. Even if you get a dollar, you have to pay a high price. Investment has increased more than before. Among them, the price of maize in the international market is 275 to 280 dollars per ton, which is higher than ever. In this situation, he demanded the soybean meal price from the country's soybean oil-producing companies.

According to the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC), the country has 80,000 to 90,000 small-scale chicken farms. Before Corona, the number was over 1 lakh 10 thousand. On a commercial basis, more than 4 crore eggs and 3 thousand 500 metric tons of chicken meat are produced in the country every day. The poultry sector directly and indirectly employs 6 million people, and the market size is more than Tk 40 thousand crore.