Poultry farm owners are in trouble with their broiler chickens. The birds are ready for sale, but they cannot find wholesalers or buyers. Small farmers used to sell some birds retail from the farm; now there are no retail buyers either. Farmers say the situation created by the coronavirus, and rumours about it, are to blame.

Mojibur Rahman, a poultry trader in Sherpur district, told Jago News: "We poultry traders are in grave danger. The broilers are 32-35 days old. This is the right time to sell, but the wholesalers aren't coming, and neither are other buyers. I phoned the wholesalers and they said they have nowhere to sell the chickens. Vehicles have stopped running to Dhaka, and buying and selling has stopped in other towns too."

Asked a question, he said: "After 32 days, no matter how much I feed the birds, they won't gain weight. Now I can't sell them, and I can't keep feeding them either, because the birds on my farm need Tk 6,600 of feed a day. Seven days have already passed, and I've lost Tk 46,200 on feed in those seven days. I don't know how long I'll have to bear this loss."

Shahidul Islam, a farmer in the same district, said: "Never mind the price per kilo, the wholesalers aren't even coming. It costs Tk 100 to Tk 110 to produce a kilo of broiler, and we can't sell it even at Tk 50 a kilo."

Shahidul has 8,000 birds on his farm. "Five thousand of them are fully grown and already past their selling time. They won't grow any more, yet I have to give them Tk 11,000 of feed every day. I can't sell them and I can't kill them either. We are in grave danger."

Mahabub Alam Lablu, assistant director of Afil Agro Limited in Jashore, said: "The coronavirus is having a negative effect on poultry. Ordinary buyers are staying away from poultry chicken, so farmers are not getting a price for the birds they produce. Small farmers have already been forced to stop production, and big businesses are struggling to keep their production going."

The Afil farm produces 25,000 kg of broilers a day. It costs Tk 110 to produce a kilo of broiler meat.

"The poultry market has been very bad ever since the coronavirus started in China. After the coronavirus reached Bangladesh, broilers were selling at Tk 40-45 a kilo a few days ago. Now we are selling at Tk 50 to Tk 55 a kilo," assistant director Mahabub Alam said.

People have stopped eating chicken, eggs and milk on the rumour that they will catch the coronavirus, and the dairy and poultry industries have collapsed as a result.

Dr Sheikh Azizur Rahman, director (extension) of the Department of Livestock Services, told Jago News that the first thing needed to resist any virus, including the coronavirus, is to build up immunity, and for that people must eat eggs, milk and meat. "There is no evidence that anyone has caught the coronavirus from eating eggs, milk or meat. Milk is an ideal food. Those who spread propaganda against it are devils in human form."

"They want to destroy the country's poultry and dairy industries," he said. "Wide publicity is needed on this, on television, radio, in newspapers and online media."

He added that the department's top officials had met that day and agreed a slogan for advertisements and television scrolls: "Eat eggs, milk and meat regularly, and build up immunity."

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.