June 14, 2012

 

Bangladesh's egg prices up at US$0.49 per two pairs

 

 

As it puts extra pressure on limited income group of people, Bangladesh's prices of chicken eggs have hit an all-time high of BDT40 (US$0.49) for two pairs in the city retail markets.

 

Traders and poultry farmers attributed it to short supply following drop in egg production.

 

Poultry farmers claimed production of eggs fell 50% in recent times mainly due to shut down of a huge number of farms with the outbreak of bird flu.

 

According to state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), egg (farm) prices shot up by 16.42% over a month and two pairs of eggs now sells at BDT40 (US$0.49).

 

Last week eggs prices ranged between BDT35-36 (US$0.43-0.44) per four. Egg prices went up by 65.96% over a year when the price ranged between BDT23-24 (US$0.28-0.29) for every four pieces, TCB data said.

 

TCB prepared the report based on its survey of the city's Karwan Bazar, New Market, Hatirpool, Moulavi Bazar, Sutrapur, Fakirapool, Mirpur, Mohammadpur, Shahjahanpur, Malibagh, Jatrabari, Shantinagar, Kochukhet and Mohakhali markets.

 

Prices of eggs are frequently going up due to the shortage of supply, Mohammad Ratan a retailer at Kawran Bazar said.

 

A large number of farms were closed in last few months resulting in decrease of both the poultry birds and egg production, Secretary General of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA) MM Khan told the FE Tuesday (June 12).

 

The high price of eggs is undesirable, he said adding we alarmed the government earlier about the situation but it hardly paid any heed to our recommendation. Moreover, the demand for eggs goes up during summer due to shortage of supply of fish and vegetables, Khondokar Md Mohsin, general secretary of Bangladesh Poultry Shilpo Rokhkha Jatiya Parishad claimed.

 

The scorching heat is another reason for less production, he added. The government has already allowed conditional import of eggs to cool down the price in the local markets. Bird flu has been detected in 21 out of 85 big poultry farms in Bangladesh this year and over 46,000 chicks have been culled until May 31.

 

The authorities culled nearly 0.579 million chickens while it destroyed about 570,000 eggs from 171 poultry farms across the country last year. Country's poultry farmers also suffered from the outbreak of the disease during winter in 2009 and 2010.

 

The bird flu was first detected in Bangladesh in a poultry farm near the capital Dhaka in March 2007. The situation deteriorated later on as the virus spread fast across the country and was reported in 47 districts between December 2007 and March 2008.