Poultry farmers have expressed concerns that the price of chicken may rise high during the Christmas season following high cost of production. The high cost may also affect eggs.
Accordingly, the Chairperson of Erikorodo Poultry Farm Estate, Ikorodu, Lagos State, Mrs. Juliana Ibitoye, on Monday sought the intervention of the federal government to save the poultry sector from total collapse.
Ibitoye, in a media interaction, said that the sector is struggling to stay afloat due to high cost of production.
Ibitoye said that many poultry farmers are selling off their farms because they are finding difficult to maintain and sustain production.
“There has been no improvement in poultry sector since the ban on importation of maize as the sector is struggling to remain afloat.
“People are selling their farms; some are folding up because of high cost of inputs. Things are not really going smoothly for the sector. There is no improvement from 2021 to date.
“A create of egg now cost between N2,600 and N2, 800 as against N1,600 and N1,800 sold in 2021.
“From farm now, we are unable to sell a create at N2,000 and in the last two weeks, price of feeds has increased by N450 each.
“A bag of feed is about N7,500 compare to about N5,500 in 2021.The situation is so terrible now and everybody is just struggling to remain afloat,” she lamented.
Ibitoye noted that the sector needed urgent intervention of the government to continue to produce poultry products for the nation.
“Poultry industry needs urgent help if the government really wants us to keep producing food for the nation.
“The issues affecting the sector are because of the continuous ban on importation of maize, none availability of soya and other puts are also not readily available.
“Even when they are available, there is no diesel and petrol. All these things put together amount to the increase in price of feed.
“The feed millers will use diesel to power their machine and they use petrol for the vehicles to convey inputs from place of purchase,” she said.
Speaking on yuletide, Ibitoye decried the low purchasing power of people noting that high inflation rate, high interest rate, fluctuating foreign exchange and fuel scarcity would impact negatively on the preparedness of citizens.
“There is little or no purchasing power anymore unlike what it used to be in the past, when Christmas is approaching, everyone is happy.
“Whenever Christmas is approaching, we as farmers are happy because we are very certain that people are coming to buy our produce and there’s going to be big sales.
“But right now, there is very low purchasing power; it is in its lowest form. Even when we produce, it becomes a problem because we are not sure there will be sales,” she said.
The chairperson decried artificial glut for eggs, saying, “There are eggs in farms now waiting for people to buy them; we are experiencing artificial glut.
“I have a depot in Iju area of Agege. I have more than 100 creates of eggs lying down there now, waiting for customers to purchase them.
“We have not stopped production totally, we will still produce the little we can for the festive period, even the little we produce, we pray that people will have money to buy,’’ she added.