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G Gurumurthy

``One of the reasons for the current excess broiler supply is early maturity of the broiler birds."

Coimbatore , Dec.26

LIQUIDATING the excess stock is the immediate concern of broiler poultry producers, especially those in Tamil Nadu, who continue to be haunted by the pressure on price realisation for their produce.

Though the farmgate price for the chicken fixed by the State Broiler Coordination Committee this week is Rs 26 a kg, a rupee lower than the break-even price, there has been no progress yet on the price recovery the poultry farmers are fondly hoping for.

Though the wholesale price is Rs 26, the actual selling price is usually pegged lower by at least Rs 2 per kg. This is despite the positive features such as the Christmas holidays and the New Year festivities around corner, when the chicken consumption is on the rise generally.

In spite of the volume growth in the chicken consumption, excess production and the consequent stock are said to be hurting the prices right now, the informed market sources said.

``One of the reasons for the current excess broiler supply is early maturity of the broiler birds which gain the extra weight of 400 grams at 38 to 40 weeks. Whereas, the birds would take 45-46 weeks to gain the same weight earlier," said Mr Soundararajan, Managing Director of Suguna Poultry group.

According to him, the Tamil Nadu broiler sector at a compounded annual growth of around 15 per cent produces an estimated 40 lakh broilers every week, but their weight yield gaining with winter months has grown from the average two kg or less per bird earlier to 2.4 kg or 2.5 kg of late.

This 20 per cent extra broiler production or 16 lakh kg of additional broilers finding in the market is what is pulling down the prices, claims Mr Soundararajan, who estimates that the current syndrome of additional `body weight' of the chickens ready for releasing into the market has built up a `week's stock' (against the usual one or two days of chicken stocks with the farms) adding pressure on selling the chickens.

Chicken market analysts say that the current initiatives by leading poultry producers to slow down broiler production would take two to three weeks for liquidating this excess stock. This may possibly allow the prices to move up. As per the production control exercise put into operation, the broiler farms have been advised to go for the stage-I culling, namely remove the parent birds at 70th week or 68th week for culling from the earlier practice of culling at 73 weeks. They feel that this process could take in any case another two months or so to show results.

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