The Hindu Business Line : Poultry sector seeks succour from Govt

Still reeling under continued consumer apathy for poultry products, commercial chicken and egg producers, especially in the South, are looking for multi-ministerial support to partly insulate them against the mounting losses.

With no improvement in the sale price in the past two weeks, poultry producers feel that early restoration of layer egg exports will partly remove the price pressures seen in the local market sale.

"Right now the ban on export has come in the way of Tamil Nadu exporting 50 lakh eggs or 25 per cent of its daily egg production and this has been severely impacting on the sale prices in the local market," said Mr Valsan, Secretary of the Namakkal-based All-India Poultry Products Exporters Association.

To restore exports, the zoning of the poultry States should be notified.

This will enable at least those States, including Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Pondicherry, not affected by the recent avian flu outbreaks, remaining officially as `disease-free' zones.

"This announcement should be made without any further loss of time if the Government wants to mitigate the poultry sector from serious financial losses," he felt.

The Association, along with the members from the state poultry farmers body, represented to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, last week and sought for a joint meeting of the Agriculture, Commerce, Finance and Health Ministries.

Zoning sought

Quick actions from the four Ministries, according to the poultry industry here, are needed to protect the country's poultry exports.

The Association wants the Agriculture Ministry to declare the zoning so that disease-free States do not carry the slur of the avian flu.

Also, the Finance Ministry, realising the losses suffered, should step in to announce financial package for the poultry producers, including rescheduling of advances and moratorium on repayment of loan and interest waivers.

The Association has asked the Commerce Ministry to send a delegation abroad to reassure on the disease-free status of most of the country's poultry zones.

The Health Ministry should also step in to drive home the point on the safety of the egg/broiler consumption. These joint efforts would encourage fast restoration of the consumer confidence on egg/chicken products thereby improving the price realisation for the poultry sector.

Prices lowered

The official wholesale egg rate has been brought down to 65 paise from 80 paise a piece amidst higher level of stocks of shell eggs held in the market.

The broiler price is also kept low at Rs 15 a kg. The rate cut has come in the wake of fears of a further sluggishness in the demand caused by the summer heat conditions.