Prices of poultry birds have almost doubled in Dhaka retail market since February amid an acute supply crisis caused by last year's devastating bird flu epidemic, an industry official said Wednesday.
Industry operators said prices of poultry birds in the city market has increased by Tk 60-Tk 65 per kg as some of the large poultry farms are not being able to produce enough and, according to retail traders, a section of businessmen has been taking advantage of the supply shortfall.
The prices of poultry birds now ranged between Tk 130 and Tk 145 per kg from their previous Tk80-Tk85 in February. The prices dropped to Tk 60-Tk 70 per kg during the outbreak of the avian flu in December last year.
"Prices of poultry birds ranged between Tk 130 and Tk145 per kg Wednesday against Tk 80 to Tk 85 in last February mainly due to shortfall in supply," a trader in the city's Karwan Bazar said.
Industry insiders said the weekly production has fallen to 3.0 million birds from 6.5 million last year.
Bangladesh Poultry Industry Association (BPIA) president Kaiser Rahman said the price hike of poultry birds feeds by Tk 4 per kg and one-day old chick by Tk 20 has also pushed the production cost up.
"The price hike in feeds has led to higher production cost. It is imperative for the farmers to raise the prices of poultry birds," he said.
The production of poultry birds, affected adversely by the bird-flu, is yet to recover fully.
About 50 per cent farms have been closed down due to the outbreak of the flu that left 2.5 million people, out of 6.0 million involved in the sector, jobless.
According to official estimate, the industry incurred losses worth Tk 40 billion with layer chicken farmers being the worst hit.
For the recovery of the sector, the government has given the poultry sector tax-holiday facility and proposed duty exemption for import of vaccines and feeds in the recently announced budget.
BPIA technical adviser M M Khan said the price of poultry birds will come down once the sector recovers fully.
The latest budgetary proposals will help the sector make a fast recovery. But it will take at least two months to see the budgetary impact in price level, he said.
Rahman stressed the need for immediate implementation of short and long term plans stressing on easy bank loans for small farmers.
He said the government should help reduce the rate of interest to 8.0 per cent from existing 15 per cent.
