July 9, 2010

Poultry prices improve in India

Egg prices were quoted at INR2.75 (US$0.058) a piece in India's Namakkal this week against last week's INR2.70 (US$0.57).

This June's monthly average stands at INR272.56 (US$5.83) (for 100 eggs) against INR244 (US$5.22) from the same period last year.

President of the Tamil Nadu Poultry Farmers' Association, Mr R. Nallathambi, said that as the poultry farmers' expenditure rise during summer, they cut down on the number of birds. This has resulted in a 5-10% drop in the state's egg production.

"Prices have moved up because demand has remained constant even during summer which is usually marked by lower offtake. Once winter sets in and the austere Tamil month of Aadi commences, there will be a drop in prices as well as demand," he added.

Also, the industry sources attribute to the price rise is the spiralling costs of feed materials such as corn, soy meal and fishmeal. Input costs account for about 40% of the total production cost.

Meanwhile, broiler prices in Tamil Nadu have declined marginally this week. "Due to gap between demand and supply, broiler prices usually rise in summer months. For the past two months, there was a rise in consumption from the neighbouring Kerala as the state imposed a ban on fishing. Now that they have lifted the ban, we are experiencing a slowdown in demand," said Mr P. Selvaraju, Chairman, Broiler Coordination Committee. Still, the prices farmers are fetching for broiler are higher than their production costs. The broiler producers too are enjoying the fruits of cut in production last year.