Govt allows egg, chick imports from India

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Saturday, 04 September 2010

Author / Source : Nurul Huda

The government has decided to allow import of day old broilers and layer chicks and also eggs from India in order to break the monopoly of the market leaders.
Of late the prices of poultry and its products have registered a steep rise fuelled by growing demand and cartelization by private corporations.
Sharful Alam, secretary, ministry of Fisheries and Livestock told The Independent  yesterday  that import of eggs, day old broiler and  day  old  chicks of layers   from  India  would  begin within a week. Once imports begin, he  said , the prices of eggs, day old broiler and layer chicks would fall significantly.
According to industry sources, only three big multinational companies  controlled about 25 per cent of the poultry and chicken business. Some other big companies were already in the process of making huge investments in the sector, which will threaten the livelihoods of the small and marginal farmers.
The government had earlier formed a permanent coordination committee headed by the director general  of the  livestock department comprising representatives of  different  ministries and associations of poultry farm owners for coordinated efforts to keep the prices under control, Alam said.  
Regarding the  demands of the Bangladesh Poultry farms National council, which had urged the Government to save it from financial ruination, Alam said, “ I am in agreement with the demands of the council.” 
Speaking to ‘The Independent,’ yesterday Khondker M. Mohsin, general secretary of the  Bangladesh Poultry  farm Protection  National Council  said that  the country’s poultry sector  had created  employment opportunities for about five million people. It  would  collapse  unless steps were  taken to protect  it  from the threat of a few big  companies, he said.

The  council (association of marginal and small poultry farm owners having 8,000 members) has placed  a charter of 19 point before the Government. This includes - reduction in the price of  day old broiler  to under   Tk. 25 and  layer chicks to under Tk. 30; effective steps to free the country from the danger of avian flu; compensation to those affected by avian flu and  curbing the monopoly  of big companies, he said.
Mohsin was critical of the  policy which allows  import   of  day-old broiler and layer chicks only  by hatchery owners for commercial farms as it was leading to rise in prices. The demands of the council, he said also include finding solution to marketing  problems of eggs and meat  of marginal and small farm owners. The council has further urged introduction of identity cards for about 1.15 lakh  poultry farm owners; curbing  money making tendency of importers and feed millers; establishment of poultry village  on government khas land; disbursement of  bank loan on easy terms; and ensuring coordination among relevant ministries  like fisheries and livestock, agriculture, forest and environment and LGRD& cooperatives.
The total investment in the  sector  today is to the tune of Tk 22,000—25,000 crore. The average  daily production of eggs is 2.35 crores and the meat  production is calculated at about 1600 tonnes,  informed sources said.