Egg prices have hit nine-year low, putting the poultry farms especially smaller ones into doldrums.
The situation has worsened further as the production cost of poultry farms have gone up in recent times following a hike in feed and medicine prices.
The fall in egg prices is forcing hundreds of small and medium entrepreneurs to stop doing business as they were counting 18-22 per cent loss against production costs of egg, according to Bangladesh Poultry Industries Association (BPIA).
Syndication of some giant poultry companies and their allied traders has been creating such a 'horrible' situation for the country's 70,000 small and medium poultry farmers, said industry insiders.
Though the prices reached the lowest at farm level, but consumers in the city are still buying the protein-rich food item at their early rates, they said.
Eggs were selling at Tk 4.0-Tk 4.8 a piece at farm end in Rangpur, Bogra, Pabna, Sirajganj, Tangail, Gazipur, Savar, Dhamrai, Brahmanbaria, Comilla and elsewhere in the country which was Tk 6.5-Tk 6.8 a piece two months ago, according to poultry farmers.
The current farm-level price is like that of 2008 when it came down sharply for bird flu outbreak, according to BPIA data.
However, egg is selling at Tk 7.0-Tk 7.5 a piece at city retail markets, nearly a 56-75 per cent price gap between farm end and retail, according to Department of Agricultural Marketing (DAM) and BPIA.
Md Helal Uddin, owner of Helal Poultry Farm at Atgharia in Pabna, told the FE that the prices of eggs started declining from September.
He said prices of farm eggs dropped to Tk 4.2 (white) and to Tk 4.8 (red) in his locality against the production cost of Tk 5.4-Tk 5.8 per piece.
The price never went below Tk 6.0 a piece since the beginning of his business in 2012, he said.
"Some 5,000 birds have now turned into my liability," said Mr Helal who invested Tk 4.5 million in his farm in last five years.
"I'm counting loss of Tk 4,200 a day by selling 3,500 eggs," he added.
Big poultry farms and traders at district level and in Dhaka/Chittagong are cashing in on such situation, he said.
Md Ariful Islam (Mithu), owner of Mayer Doaa Poultry Farm, a broiler farm at Mirazapur in Tangail, said feed prices increased to Tk 16-Tk 17 a kg which was Tk 10-Tk 10.5 a kg six months back.
He said the cost for per kg broiler chicken is now Tk 127-Tk 130 but they are buying it at Tk 112-Tk 114 a kg.
Hundreds of poultry farmers in his locality will be loan defaulters if trade remains sluggish, he added.
However, broiler chicken had been selling at Tk 125-Tk 135 a kg in Dhaka for last four months, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB).
Md Mohsin Khan, convener of Bangladesh Poultry Rakkha Jatiya Parishad, an association of small farmers in the country, said the recent price fall is abnormal as demand usually increases significantly during the winter season.
Middlemen-- traders in the districts and Dhaka-- are benefiting from it, depriving both the farm owners and consumers of fair prices, he said.
"If we closely monitor Tejgaon wholesale market in Dhaka, we could find a huge price gap between the market and that of farmers-end," he said.
Big poultry companies, who hatch day-old-chicks and are mainly involved in processed meat, also have entered the layer market creating a surplus, he said.
Many of the companies are selling eggs at 'dumped' prices to hold the major market share in coming days, forcing small and medium ones to shut their operation, he said.
Md Mashiur Rahman, former president of BPIA, said egg is now a key protein source thanks to the efforts made by the country's 70,000 small and medium-scale poultry farmers.
The government monitoring should be increased to prevent (if any) intentional price fall to keep thousands of investors getting involved in the sector who have been working hard to minimise the protein deficiency in the country.
He said the egg production has reached 32.6 million pieces a day and the government has targeted to make it 60.0 million pieces by 2021 to achieve protein sufficiency in the country.
So, the sector should have to invest minimum Tk 600 billion more, he said.
TCB data showed that prices of egg and meat are now 12.0 and 14.5 per cent lesser respectively compared to that of last year.
