Poultry farmers urged the government to stop the import of eggs to protect the marginal farmers and save the sector.
“The price of eggs can be temporarily reduced by importing, but the egg market will be unstable in the future. Many marginal farmers are planning to move away from egg production due to the import decision”, they said.
The leaders of Bangladesh Poultry Association (BPA) came up with the remarks at a press conference at Dhaka Reporters Unity in the capital on Tuesday.
They demanded to continue the import of chickens to free the poultry sector from corporate syndicates and sought permission to import chicken feed to keep prices stable.
If that happens and the price of chicken feed in the country's market decrease, the syndicate will collapse, and the marginal farmers of the country will be benefited, they said.
Sumon Howlader, BPA President said, “Due to the supervision of the egg market, now the corporate syndicate has started looting the chicken market.”
Pointing out that import of eggs will not solve the problem; he said that due to import, marginal farmers are moving away from production.
He added, “Our daily demand for eggs is 4 crore pieces and production is 5 crore pieces. So it is time for us to export eggs and chicken instead of importing. For this, the farmers have to provide feed and chickens at a low price.”
Ilyas Khandkar, general secretary of BPA alleged that the price of chicks is fixed by syndicate.
“A broiler chicken was sold for Tk 35 three weeks ago. In a span of three weeks, the price of a chicken has increased to Tk 60. The cost of production has not increased”, he said.
“In this way corporate chicken producers are making additional profit of Tk 6.5 crore per day. If the any one raise a question to them, they have one thing in common - they have lost in chick business since last January”, he furthered.
The corporate producers are under the control of the Department of Livestock. Those who monitor and control them - they are their slaves. Livestock is working for them and the department does not care about the farmers, he added.
Rokon/Shamim
