Small farms suffer from high production cost

The second reason is that both the production and supply of eggs have gone down, therefore causing a gap between supply and demand in the market.

The third reason is bad weather. Sometimes due to bad weather, the price of eggs may go up, but such a hike does not linger too long.

What is the current production cost of eggs?

The production cost of each egg is Tk 10.27 in the case of the smaller farms and Tk 10 in the case of the larger farms. Several agricultural universities, Bangladesh Poultry Farm Protection National Council (BPKRJP), and some other institutions came together to calculate and find out the production cost of an egg after summing up feed price, utility charges, labour, etc. expenses.

If a farmer wants to make a profit, they would have to sell an egg at a price more than its production cost. The report on production costs has been submitted to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, Ministry of Commerce. The price will be finalised after their verification.

The retail price of each egg in neighbouring countries is Tk 7.50-8, in our country it is Tk 11.50. Why is it so high in our country?

There are two major reasons behind the higher price of eggs in our country. First of all, the eggs in their country are smaller than the eggs in our country. This is because they use poultry breeds which lay smaller eggs. We use breeds that lay larger eggs. Therefore, the farmers in India produce 500 eggs, and the farmers in Bangladesh produce 380 eggs for the same amount of feed.

Secondly, the price of feed is low in neighbouring countries. They produce raw materials for poultry feed such as wheat, soybean, maize etc in their own country. We import for them, so our production cost for feed ends up being higher, hiking the price.

Besides these two reasons, it may be noted that in those countries, the demand for white eggs is higher, and that has a lower production cost.

Is the production of eggs in our country going down? If so, how much has it gone down?

Poultry farmers are constantly losing capital as the selling price of eggs is lower than the cost of production at the farm level. Even if it is sold at the current price, farms will continue to dwindle, as the production cost is Tk 10.27 and the selling price is Tk 10. Farmers of Gazipur sold each egg at Tk 9.80-10 each on Saturday.

Due to this loss, 8,000 farms have been closed since the beginning of this year. Many farms did not close completely but reduced production. Those who used to raise 3 thousand chickens have been raising 1,000-2,000 at best.

A reduction in egg production was also seen. In the last 6-8 months, the daily production of eggs in the country has decreased by more than 27,00,000 pieces.

There have been complaints about a syndicate in the egg market. How credible is the claim?

Eggs count as perishable goods that cannot be stockpiled for a long time. So, there’s no scope for syndication by the small poultry farmers. Till now, small farmers contribute to 78 per cent of egg production in the country, while large corporations or farms make up the other 22 per cent. Therefore, the claim of syndication in the egg market is not logical.

However, with the way that the large farms are increasing production and smaller farms are closing one by one, we cannot say for certain that syndication would not rise in the near future.

What measures will save farmers and bring stability to the market?

The government should deduct the cost of production of eggs and chickens from the production of poultry feed, fix the profit margin accordingly, and set the price. Monitoring the market accordingly should also be done. Only then farmers and suppliers will be saved.