January 24, 2008

 

India egg industry affected by bird flu attack
 

 

Eggs worth over US$560,000 were left stranded in the sea as bird flu ravages India's poultry industry.

 

The eggs were exported from the state to the Gulf countries but as many as 22 containers of eggs shipped to Oman and Qatar from Namakkal this month have not been lifted yet as the two countries have abruptly banned India's egg imports following the outbreak of bird flu in West Bengal.

 

V.K. Sivakumar of VKS Exports told IANS that the stocks are not lifted because the two countries did not realize that Namakkal is far away from West Bengal. If the situation persists, egg exports will be seriously affected, he said.

 

As eggs have a shelf life of 90 days, exporters are trying hard to divert the consignments to other buyers in western Africa to cut down on their losses.

 

The recent bird flu outbreak has not only affected export amounts, but has also drastically brought down the prices of exported eggs.

 

Sivakumar, whose company exports about four million eggs daily, said the price had gone down to $16 per carton of 360 eggs from the original price of $19 per carton.

 

Poultry farmers said the exports may slump by 25 percent.

 

Veterinarian-turned poultry farmer Selvaraj said they get badly affected each time there is a bird flu outbreak in some part of the country but that their farms' hygiene conditions are excellent and that their birds have not been infected with flu anytime in the past three decades.

 

Selvaraj added that germicides have been sprayed in all poultry farms and frequency of vaccination have been increased to ensure that their birds are free of flu and other infections.

 

Poultry farmers have decided to cut egg prices from Rs 1.60 per egg to Rs 1.30. It is likely to go down to Rs 1 per egg, they said.

 

Meanwhile, Namakkal District Collector G. Sundaramurthy has set up quick-action veterinarian teams to look for any abnormality in the hens bred in the poultry farms.

 

There are about 750 poultry farms in and around Namakkal, about 700 km from the state capital Chennai, where 30 million chickens are reared. These farms produce about 14 percent of the country's eggs - about 20 million. About six million of these are exported daily, mostly to countries in the Middle East and West Africa.