October 20, 2010

Bangladeshi chicken, egg prices slump

The value of broiler chicken and eggs are reducing in the retail market of Bangladesh with prices selling at Tk140 (US$1.99) per kg and Tk72 (US$1.02) per dozen, respectively.

According to the Breeders Association of Bangladesh, the wholesale market price on Monday (Oct 18) for broiler chicken was Tk120 (US$1.71), Egg Tk550 (US$7.82) per hundred pieces, and day-old chick was Tk63 (US$0.90). There is also a forecast of reducing the price further within the next few weeks.

The poultry leaders are justifying the price hike for a huge gap between supply and demand that suddenly emerged after Anthrax red alert. Saidur Rahman Babu, general secretary of Breeders Association informed that poultry industry didn't have capacity to shoulder this huge load. He said, the supply of fish was slow and the price was also high. On top of that, Eid festival was too close. Therefore, people had very few alternatives other than poultry items.

Mr Babu said that the stock of broiler hen ran out so quickly that the Breeders had to take decision to increase production but as it took 32-35 days to make the broiler hen ready for sale, they had to wait for few weeks to have control over the market. Mr Babu claimed that their production cost have also gone up much higher compared with the last few years.

He said, "Maize was Tk11-12 (US$0.16-0.17) per kg but now selling at Tk20 (US$0.28); Soya bean was Tk18-19 (US$0.26-0.27) per kg but now is at Tk32-33 (US$0.46-0.47). We are expecting to have a meeting with the Minister for Fisheries and Livestock hopefully on October 20, to discuss pricing issues including the challenges facing the poultry industry," Babu added. Mr Babu said that they had forwarded actual production cost analysis to the Department of Livestock.

Moshiur Rahman, convenor, National Coordination Committee, said that the price of chicken and egg were still lower than that of China, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Philippines and Thailand. He said that once the price of meat or beef go up it never came down. But the price of chicken and egg reduces when the demand and supply gets a balance.

"We have to decide how far we want to achieve progress for poultry industry, how many people we want to feed. We also have to calculate how much the demand will go up in the next five years and what should be the expected investment. Poultry is not like any other business as it is directly related with human health and supplying protein and nutrition to the nation," Mr Rahman said.

They had been fully dependant on foreign companies and importing full requirement of broiler and layer hens but now on the road to get self-reliant. "There is a need to have more confident on our capacity and might have to impose restriction once again on importing chicken, egg and hatching egg if we want to achieve our goal and enter into the middle-east market," Rahman added.

He said, the hatchery projects would be able to start by September and come into full production within three months time.