The price of soya bean, the main component of poultry feed, has more than doubled in the past one year, increasing the price of the feed as well. This has caused many small farmers to curtail or stop production, wiping out also small poultry feed manufacturers.
Balram Yadav, managing director at animal feed and agribusiness company
, said chicken and fish prices would start rising during the festival period. “The shortages will come when the demand will be the highest around Diwali,” he said.
Supplies from the country’s fisheries industry have also contracted by 20%from the pre-Covid times, Yadav said. “Exports have been hit due to various reasons, while labour availability at inland shrimp farms was affected due to lockdown,” he added.
Vasanthkumar Shetty, president of the Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association (Maharashtra), said: “Due to high feed prices, small farmers have stopped placement of chicks. The poultry integrators do not have that option. But they have reduced the chick placement by about 15%.”
The current farm gate price of chicken is Rs 87 a kg in Maharashtra.
“We expect the prices to increase by about 10% to 15%, which may help us recover the cost of production, which is around Rs 95/kg,” said Shetty.
Yadav said demand for chicken may increase after the month of Shravana, as restaurants were now allowed to open in the evening and out of home consumption was expected to improve.
About 40% of the chicken consumption takes place out of home, Yadav said. “Though there is some increase in at-home consumption of chicken, it has not been able to compensate for the fall in out of home consumption,” he added.
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