The Hindu Business Line : Egg prices crash as Bengal bans poultry traffic

Coimbatore, Feb.1 Reeling under price crash for eggs and broilers in the aftermath of the bird flu outbreak in West Bengal, poultry producers across the country have approached the Centre seeking moratorium on repayment of loans and interest for a two year period, besides interest subvention of 7 per cent for next two years.

Delegation

The relief has been sought by a delegation of poultry producers across the country who met the Union Agricultural Minister, Mr Sharad Pawar on January 29. The minister who listened to the delegation assured the members that the government would extend the necessary support to the poultry industry to overcome their current difficulties arising out of the bird flu incidents in West Bengal.

The delegation pointed out to Mr Pawar the marketing crisis due to the ban on the movement of eggs and broiler hatching eggs from South to West Bengal and other North Eastern States has severely affected the poultry producers all over the country.

Egg traffic

According to a communication from the Namakkal-based poultry industry which also formed part of the all India delegation that called on the Union Minister, the southern poultry sector including the Andhra Pradesh poultry industry used to send daily three crore eggs to West Bengal, besides one crore eggs to Assam and other North Eastern States that would pass through West Bengal. Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra were also despatching 1.8 crore broiler hatching eggs per month to West Bengal, in addition to the table eggs.

With the ban on egg transport to Bengal, crores of eggs began piling up at farms as diverting eggs in large number to other markets became difficult leading to huge surplus eggs and the consequent farm gate price crash. The prices fell below 50 per cent of the pre-bird flu days price levels. In the case of broiler hatching eggs, they fell to as low as Rs 2-3 from Rs 10-12 per egg.

Small players

While big poultry producers were forced to drastically cut their production, the small players already financially weak due to high operating costs, are finding the going tough to even keep the birds alive, the delegation said.

Sources said that as part of the relief from the Centre, the delegation has urged the Centre to convert outstanding working capital loans into long term loan and sanction of fresh working capital to enable the poultry farmers to restart their operation. In addition to these, it also wanted the Centre to allot 5 lakh tonnes of maize at subsidised rate and concessional power tariff for the poultry farms on par with the farmers .

Zoning sought

The delegation has also urged the Centre to expeditiously create zoning of the country’s poultry production centres so as to ensure that even if one poultry zone is hit by avian disease, the zoning would ensure that exports of poultry products from other zones unaffected by the disease incident could continue unhindered. The Government had assured to look into this issue, sources said.

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