Poultry biggies eat up Tk 5.18b in 2 weeks: BPA

The country's leading poultry companies made an additional profit of Tk 5.18 billion in just fifteen days by raising prices of egg, broiler chicken, and day-old-chicks (DOCs), claimed the Bangladesh Poultry Association (BPA).
The organisation of the country's small-scale poultry farms and input dealers claimed it at a programme - 'Volatile market of egg and chicken: press conference of deprived farm owners and entrepreneurs' - in the capital on Saturday.
Farm egg price hit an all-time high of Tk 160-180 a dozen a few days back, marking a Tk 30-50 a dozen surge in a week.
Broiler chicken price shot up to Tk 200-210 a kg - showing Tk 50-60 a kg hike during the period, according to market sources.
The BPA claimed that ten to twelve big companies made Tk 1.18 billion profit by raising egg prices of their farms by Tk 3.0 per piece.
BPA President Md Suman Hawladar also said by raising broiler chicken prices by minimum Tk 15 a kg, the companies fetched additional Tk 1.72 billion.
They made another Tk 2.34 billion profit by selling minimum 13 million pieces of DOCs during the period by raising the price of a chick by Tk 12.
He also said marginal farmers and small input dealers are in a fix amid rising costs of feed, DOCs, and transport.
The big companies have been forcing the small-scale farms across the country to become their contract farmers. Farmers, who have contracts with the big farms, get feed at Tk 2,500 per 50-kg sack, but non-contract farmers have to buy it at Tk 3,300 from the market.
Mr Hawladar noted that the big companies, also major players of the local feed market, raise feed prices by 50-60 per cent in a year.

The BPA president also said the syndicate of the companies, including CP, Saguna, Hope, Seventy One, Kazi, Nourish, Afil and a few others, set prices of items for the sector.
The syndicate also has representatives in every big wholesale markets of the country, and these wholesalers fix prices at the wish of the syndicate.
Half of the small farms have been closed in recent years due to such market manipulation of the big companies, whereas prices of produces dropped during the lockdown periods amid the pandemic, he added.
BPA Secretary Ilias Khandoker mentioned that only about 40,000 poultry farms are now active in the country, while some 30,000 have been closed during the last two and a half years.
BPA Vice President Bappy Kumar Dey said apart from the city wholesalers, the government should also bring the big farms under strict monitoring, so that the marginal farmers and the consumers can be benefitted.
The country's farm egg production is now 40-45 million pieces a day, of which the big companies produce more than 25 million pieces, he added.
However, the leading poultry companies claimed that middlemen were mainly responsible for such a tectonic price hike of egg and chicken.
The Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC), led mainly by the big companies, in its press release issued on August 19, said brown farm egg price reached Tk 9.73 per piece on an average in August at farm level from Tk 8.9 per piece in July.
It opined that the middlemen were making high profit, battering the consumers and the farmers.
BPICC President Moshiur Rahman said currently, the production cost of broiler chicken is Tk 140-145 per kg and that of brown egg is minimum Tk 9.50 per piece.
The production cost of egg and chicken has increased by 30-40 per cent due to abnormal increase in prices of feed raw materials in the international market, massive fall in the value of BDT against the US dollar, excessive shipping charge for importing raw materials, and load-shedding, he noted.
Denying the BPA's latest allegations, Mr Rahman told the FE on Saturday that the companies have no influence on the wholesale or retail markets.
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