August 19, 2010

Bangladesh shuts down 5,000 poultry farms

In the last three months, about 5000 poultry farms have already closed in Bangladesh due to abnormal price hikes of chicks and poultry feed, thereby threatening the industries.

The said farms are located in Sirajganj, Pabna, Natore and Bogra districts in the Northern region of Bangladesh. Many others are on the way to closure.

This has resulted to a number of farm owners becoming unemployed and distressed as they have faced huge loss to carry the business and failed to pay the money of bank loan.

The poultry farms' owners and traders complained that a powerful group of hatchery owners has increased the prices of chicks and poultry feeds by creating this artificial crisis.

"I had a poultry farm, started since 2005. But, I compelled to close that in the first hour of last month, as I incurred in debt, due to frequent loss to carry my poultry business. It was not possible to purchase a chick because the price had doubled. Besides, the price of poultry feed has increased abnormally. A kilogramme of poultry feed is now being sold at double the price of about six month ago. As a result, I have bound to closure my farm to safe from loss", said Atiar Rahman, a former poultry farm owner of Bera upazila in Pabna district.
 

Livestock official sources said that, at present, there are about 10,000 poultry farms in the four districts of Sirajganj, Pabna, Natore and Bogra. Among them, about 6,000 are registered, while the rest are unregistered. But the non-government sources claimed that the total figure of poultry farms is now double than the government description.

The district officials of those livestock offices admitted the closure of farms following the price hike of chicks and feed. They further said that, a section of dishonest hatchery owners has increased the prices ignoring government instruction, as there is no specific rule on this sector.