January 30, 2008

India sees more woes piled onto Tamil Nadu's ailing poultry industry

India's domestic poultry industry is already in throes, but a cold wave and sluggish market in the north has further complicated the problem.
 

Andhra Pradesh, a major poultry supplier to the north, has diverted its attention to the southern state of Kerala and that is hurting the poultry farmers in Tamil Nadu as Kerala is their niche.

Egg consumption has nose-dived this winter, especially in Northern India, which is facing the worst cold wave in the last five decades. According to Namakkal poultry farmer, Inbaraj, all hopes of capitalising on the cold wave to counter the bird flu impact are now shattered.

Bird flu has caused poor market performance, and the National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC) has slashed egg price to Rs 1.30 per piece last week in response. The price had been Rs 2.25 early this month.

Despite so, the market is not showing much improvement. Except for the weekly 20.1 million eggs supply to the state government, the market remained sluggish.

Industry sources said apart from Kerala, there is a decline in egg consumption in Tamil Nadu.

A team of veterinary department officials from Kerala inspected Namakkal's farms after the media reports of bird flu outbreaks in the farms. NECC coordination manager Balasubramaniam asserted that the situation is normal and all consignments from Namakkal carries a certificate from the State Animal Husbandry department before being sent to Kerala.

Namakkal's daily export volume to the South East Asia market was 5 million, but it has since plunged to 2.5 million.