The country鈥檚 poultry farmers has announced that they would shut down country-wide production of chicken and eggs from May 1, as the sector fell under the grip of corporate syndicates.
Due to the syndicates, poultry farmers lost Tk 1,260 crore in the past two months, where the chicken producers incurred Tk 900 crore and egg producers Tk 360 crore.
Suman Haolader, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Association, revealed this in a statement on Thursday.
Regarding the statement, he told 抖阴精品 that during Eid-ul-Fitr season, the poultry sector witnessed a horrible loss and hundreds of farms were getting closed every day at a marginal level.
Eid-ul-Fitr, one of the biggest religious festivals of the Muslims, was celebrated in the country on March 31.
Suman claimed that due to inaction of the government and regulatory agencies, some corporate companies had started a conspiracy to take over the entire poultry industry.
鈥楾he corporate companies control the entire chicken, eggs, medicine and feed market and frequently create artificial crises to capture the marginal markets,鈥� he said.
鈥業n the name of contract farming, they are trying to initiate a modern-day corporate slavery, by which the entire industry will go under control of 3-5 corporate companies,鈥� he added.
He said that before Eid, the corporate companies made the marginal farmers buy day-old chick or DOC at Tk 70-80 a chick, which they produced at Tk 28-30 a chick.
The companies, however, sell them for Tk 23-34 to their contract farmers.
鈥楬owever, they sold it to their contract farmers at the production price. The production cost of chicken was Tk 160-170, but the contract farmers sold it at Tk 120-130,鈥� he added.
He said that the same thing happened with eggs, where the production cost was Tk 10-10.5 apiece, but the corporate companies sold them at Tk 8-8.50 apiece.
It is an attempt to destroy marginal farms in a planned manner so that they can control the entire poultry sector, the BPA chairman said.
He shared some information on baby chicken prices, where it was seen that broiler DOC price was Tk 65 on March 2, which lowered to Tk 23 on April 17.
Rubel Shikdar, a poultry farmer from Bhola, has lost Tk 12 lac in the past four months. He told 抖阴精品 that he bought chicks from a company dealer for Tk 81 a unit before Eid and the production cost was Tk 170-180.
However, the company鈥檚 contract farmers sold chicken at Tk 150 a kilogram, which caused the marginal farmers to incur losses.
He said that they buy feed from companies at Tk 3,500-4,000 a sack, while the contract farmers buy the same item at Tk 2,800-3,000.
鈥楢s we have to buy chickens and feeds from the companies, they exploit us by selling products to us and the contract farmers at two different prices. They always force us to sign for contract farming,鈥� he added.
Poultry farmers also said that they were not against companies, but against unethical business practices. They said that breaking the chick and egg syndicate was mandatory to save the marginal poultry farmers.
They also put a 10-point demand, which included forming a national price control policy, implementing strict laws to control contract farming, formation of a poultry market regulatory authority, introduction of farmers鈥� registration and ID cards, restricting chicken-producing companies from producing feed and medicine and formation of a full-fledged 鈥楶oultry Development Board.鈥�