Poultry farm chickens are dying due to severe fire. The production of meat and eggs has started to decrease. If this situation continues, there may be a crisis in the supply of broiler chickens and eggs in the coming days. In this, the price of eggs and chicken may increase drastically from next August to October. Bangladesh Poultry Association (BPA) has expressed such fears.
The organization claims that as a result of the ongoing heat wave, around one lakh chickens are dying every day due to heatstroke across the country, with an estimated loss of Tk 20 crores per day. As a result marginal farmers have lost Tk 200 crore in 10 days. In the last 10 to 12 days after Eid, more than 1 million broiler, layer and golden chickens have died across the country. Of this, 80 percent are broiler chickens and 10 to 15 percent are layer chickens. Apart from this, 5 percent of other chickens including Sonali died.
The organization made such a claim in a press release sent to the media on Thursday (April 25).
According to the press release, corporate egg-chicken suppliers and Tejgaon Egg Syndicate will create a shortage of eggs and chickens by taking advantage of the death of chickens on farms in summer. From June they will start increasing the prices. From August to October the price of eggs and chicken will increase drastically. The government should protect the poultry farmers in transition from this situation. The government should keep the farmers in production by subsidizing chicks and poultry feed and keep the supply chain in place so that there is no crisis in the market.
At present there are 60 to 65 thousand marginal chicken farms in the country, the press release also said that 20 thousand farmers are contracted with corporate groups. If this situation continues for a few more days, 15 to 20 thousand farms will be closed again. Marginal poultry farmers can never store eggs. However, most of the country’s egg traders, including corporate groups and Dhaka Tejgaon, Kaptan Bazar, have started stocking eggs through cold storage. Taking advantage of the situation, they will sell eggs and chickens at higher prices. Daily broiler chicken demand is 3 thousand 500 tons, golden layer chicken demand is 1 thousand 200 tons. In normal times, broiler and layer chicken meat production was 5 thousand 200 tons, which is more than the demand. However, many farms will be closed down due to increased losses, resulting in broiler production falling to 4,000 tonnes.
It is also said that the daily demand for eggs is 4 crore pieces. During normal times, 4.5 crore eggs are produced per day, which is more than the demand. However, due to increase in temperature, only 38 million to 9 million pieces of eggs are being produced daily. As a result, there is a daily shortage of 20 lakh eggs.
According to the press release, the marginal farmers will be able to turn around if the import of chicks and poultry feed is allowed from abroad to maintain the production of eggs and chickens by freeing them from the hostages of corporate companies. Farmers never get fair price for eggs and chickens under the grip of corporate syndicate, Tejgaon Egg Syndicate and Poultry Syndicate. One disaster after another befalls marginal chicken farmers.
NH/KSR/JIM
