Scorching summer of discontent for poultry trade

The oppressive heat of the early summer, and the prevailing drought-like conditions, are taking a huge toll on the poultry industry.

With groundwater sources drying up, and the price of feed going up by over 50 per cent, the cost of production has shot up for poultry farmers in the southern States, without a matching rise in the prices at which they sell poultry products.

“Summer has set in early this year, and borewells have dried up in some regions,” Subba Raju, Vice-President of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), told BusinessLine .

Layer birds suffer Consequently, he noted, the price of maize has gone up to ₹ 1,500 from ₹ 1,100 a quintal. “The cost of other feed varieties too has gone up.”

Moreover, Raju said, “the oppressive heat is killing the birds. We are losing 10-15 per cent of our birds to high temperatures.”

Fearing higher mortality rates, poultry farmers have cut down replacement of birds by 25 per cent –– “in order to save on feed costs,” Raju said.

This is a common phenomenon in the summer, noted G B Sundarajan of the Suguna group. “We witness less production and less body weight.”

However, the months of May and June, when the demand for poultry products typically improves, still offered some hope, he added.

With Telangana reeling under extreme heat conditions, the demand for poultry products from Tamil Nadu is on the rise, but prices are virtually flat. The wholesale price of eggs is ₹3.50 apiece, against ₹3.45 in March.

According to the NECC, the daily egg production in the Namakkal zone, which is an egg production hub, had fallen to 303.05 lakh in 2015-16 fiscal from 313.56 lakh in 2014-15.

Broiler prices up The saving grace for the industry is that broiler prices are marginally up, at ₹81/kg from ₹76/kg in March, on the back of an increased demand for animal protein. Prices are expected to rise further, with a 45-day ban on deep sea fishing on the east coast taking effect from April 15.

Still, all this is poor compensation for an industry where the margins are under enormous pressure.

Faced with water shortage and high feed prices, poultry farms in the region have taken to selling layer birds as young as 65 weeks old, against the normal egg-laying span of 72-78 weeks.

EC-sheds The near-drought conditions and the losses have accentuated the need for environmentally controlled poultry sheds, which come with an advanced climate control system and automated feeding and watering mechanisms.

“Of the 1,000 layer farms in Namakkal, only a handful have installed environmentally controlled sheds,” a farm owner pointed out. He attributed this to inadequate awareness among poultry farmers and the high investment cost involved.

The heat is well and truly on for the poultry industry.

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