The All Ceylon Poultry Traders Association (ACPTA) authorities said that there will be a bigger egg shortage in the country soon and this could be avoided if the Government takes immediate action to reduce the prices of maize and vitamins which are the main food used by poultry farmers.
Speaking to Daily News ACPTA, President Ajith Gunasekara said although the dollar depreciation has resulted in reducing the prices of several consumer items, unfortunately it has still not affected the current high price of maize and this situation has weakened the country’s egg production. He highlighted that nearly 50,000 small and medium scale poultry farmers in the country have already stopped expanding their poultry farms due to the unbearable prices of maize and vitamins in the open market.
“At least the Ministry should instruct officials in Divisional Secretariats to visit poultry farms regularly and listen to the grievances of poultry farmers,” he said.
Gunasekara further said it is cheaper to reduce poultry foods and vitamins at least by 40% rather than importing eggs from neighboring India when considering the colossal sum of foreign exchange spent on egg imports. He said apart from this authorities should know that Sri Lanka has adequate lands to start new poultry farms and it is the responsibility of authorities like divisional secretariats to encourage people in their respective areas especially Samurdhi recipients to start new poultry farms.
Gunasekara further said currently only super centres sell high quality eggs with the thick yellow coloured yolk at Rs. 550 but the stocks are finished within a few hours since private shop owners purchase them in bulk and sell them beyond the Government’s controlled price. He therefore urged authorities to look into this matter positively or else there will be a severe egg shortage in the near future.
Meanwhile a leading poultry farm owner in Chilaw, John Fernando said although the Government made an announcement over the fixed price for chicken, supermarkets and other shop owners sell only chicken parts and a kilo of full chicken exceeds over Rs. 1,800.
