Poultry farmers in Gazipur are in trouble as the prices of chicken feed and medicine rise. Several thousand farms in the district have already closed, and egg production has fallen as a result. In Sreepur alone, daily output was once 30 lakh eggs but has now dropped to 10 lakh.

Poultry farmers and others in the trade say Gazipur's poultry industry is now on the brink. The prices of chicken feed, especially soybean meal, maize meal, wheat meal and rice bran, and of all kinds of medicine keep rising, and entrepreneurs live with the worry of losses.

They say the industry is under heavy pressure because advance income tax, import duty and corporate tax have not been withdrawn. If this is not resolved soon, the industry will be in danger and people will face a shortage of protein. Poultry traders have asked for tax exemptions to overcome the crisis.

Zulfikar Ali Bhuttu, a farmer in Sreepur, Gazipur, said the prices of chicken medicine and feed keep rising. The price of soybean meal, the main chicken feed, has gone up a lot. It usually comes onto the market from the country's edible oil producers, and with edible oil prices up, soymeal is now very expensive. Feed prices are also rising because advance income tax, import duty and corporate tax on raw materials have not been withdrawn. If this continues, the poultry industry will come under heavy pressure.

He said his farm sold red eggs at Tk 9.10 each and white eggs at Tk 8.35 on Tuesday, 24 May. From the farm the eggs go to the arot, then to large wholesale markets, then to retail shops and finally to customers. After these four steps, the price rises by Tk 1 to 1.5 an egg, and ordinary buyers pay Tk 10 to 11 in shops for an egg that left the farm at Tk 9.10.

Farmers said the main raw materials for poultry feed include protein concentrate, maize, limestone, wheat polish, soybean meal, rice bran, fish meal, broiler feed and layer feed.

Another farmer, Abul Khayer, said that although chick prices are low, the high price of everything from medicine to feed makes it hard to survive in the industry.

Abdul Motin, president of the Sreepur Upazila Poultry Association, said Gazipur's poultry industry is on the brink and farms are closing because of continuous losses. Sreepur once had about 4,000 farms; now there are about 1,500. It once produced 30 lakh eggs a day, now 10 lakh. The industry could survive if the farmgate price of an egg were Tk 12, he said.

He said poultry feed must be subsidised and these products made tax-free to save the industry, which would increase imports of raw materials for poultry.

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