The commerce ministry has decided to stop the export of soybean meal, an essential ingredient in poultry, fish and dairy feed, from Thursday.

A notification issued by the ministry on Tuesday, citing two letters from the Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock and the Department of Livestock Services, said: "If soybean meal exports continue, dairy and poultry feed production could be seriously hampered, as a result of which the prices of dairy and poultry feed will rise. This will have an adverse effect on the country's livestock sector."

Mainly for that reason, to protect the dairy and poultry sectors, necessary steps were requested to stop soybean meal exports from 14 October. The notification added, however, that goods covered by LCs/TTs completed by Wednesday may be exported by 20 October.

Welcoming the decision, Feed Industries Association Bangladesh (FIAB) president Ehtesham B. Shahjahan said: "We thank the commerce ministry for taking such an important decision, even if late."

FIAB general secretary Md Ahsanuzzaman said the decision to export soybean meal had caused unimaginable losses to the country's poultry, fish and dairy sectors. He said: "With exports stopped and the soybean meal shortage in India easing, I certainly expect the local price of soybean meal to fall."

Although the export ban has brought some relief for now, poultry and dairy farmers say it is not enough; bringing soybean meal prices back to their previous level is also essential. Otherwise feed prices will not fall, and the production cost of eggs and chicken cannot be brought under control.

Poultry, fish and dairy farmers have called for pressure on oil-producing companies to lower the price of soybean meal.

Source: Desh Rupantor. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.