The Hindu Business Line : Kerala monsoon brings cheer to TN layer sector

THE resumption of schools and the onset of monsoon in Kerala are expected to buoy the seasonal fortunes of the poultry sector in Tamil Nadu, especially the layer sector.

The active monsoon in Kerala in the past week has enabled it to strengthen its price-line on despatches of both the shell-egg and live chicken to Kerala, owing to limited scope for fishing activities during the monsoon.

Sensing the demand surge, the table egg trade, which had to readjust prices to offset the loss of noon-meal supplies in schools during the summer months, has raised the egg rate by 10 paise to Rs 1.35 apiece on prospects of higher demand from the Kerala market as also the possibility of early resumption of egg distribution to noon meal centres from this month.

Sources at the Namakkal-based National Egg Coordination Committee's (NECC) Zonal committee indicate the possibility of egg rate being further revised upward by another five paise. The resumption of noon-meal egg distribution at schools would provide additional marketing of some 10 lakh eggs per day for the table egg sector.

Finding the growing demand for table egg in the market, the NECC-backed weekly price-fixation committee in Namakkal had kept raising the rate from mid-May. As for the live chicken market, which remained stable in the past four months due to steady consumption levels, managed to hit a new price at the beginning of this month when the farm-gate price for broiler touched Rs 42 per kg, though it fell later to Rs 32 at the beginning of this week.

The loss of production due to soaring temperatures, coupled with an increase in meat consumption during summer holidays, kept the wholesale prices at Rs 35 plus for over two weeks. But broiler suppliers now feel that with the resumption of schools, the family spending on meat would take a beating and the shift in priority to meeting other expenses, including expenses on education for the wards, would force the broiler producers to further soften their prices in the coming weeks. The broiler sector expects the farm-gate price to further slip to below Rs 30.

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