August 16, 2012

The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) has appealed to the government to ban exports of corn and soymeal, following an unprecedented increase in the prices of these commodities.

The NECC has also appealed for the forward trading of these two commodities and this would help curb speculation and hoarding of soymeal and corn, which are the essential feed ingredients of the poultry industry.

The organisation has called to place quantitative restrictions on volumes for export and forward trading in order to discourage speculation and lower the prices of soymeal and corn to affordable levels. The committee has also appealed to the government for allocation of at least 10 lakh tonne of wheat by the Food Corporation of India to minimise the pressure on the price of corn in the domestic market.

In the last two months, there has been a steep increase in the price of soymeal, mainly due to forward trading and hoarding by traders and exporters in anticipation of a substantial increase in the volume of export. A NECC release says that the soymeal prices have increased from INR2,000 (US$36) per quintal to INR4,200 (US$75) per quintal and INR950 (US$17) to INR1,400 (US$25) for corn.

As a result of the steep increase in the prices of input costs, the breakeven level for egg production, which was INR2.25 (US$0.04) per egg two months ago, has gone up to INR3 (US$0.05). And for broiler production, it has increased from INR45 (US$0.81) per kilogramme live weight to INR65 (US$1.17) per kilogramme in the last two months.

Poultry farmers are unable to get farm gate prices following the increasing cost of production.