After essential commodities like edible oil, cereals and other food items, it is the turn of staple items like chicken and eggs to get dearer. Due to increase in the prices of poultry feed, the prices of eggs and chickens may go up soon.
The prices of feed meal, which is a mix of maize and soya meal, have risen significantly forcing the government to ban exports of maize. The government is also considering banning soya meal exports soon for controlling the prices of poultry products. According to Poultry Federation of India (PFI), after the recent ban on maize exports, the prices have fallen from Rs 9,600 per tonne prevailing two months back to Rs 8,700 per tonne. On the other hand, due to significant rise in exports of soya meal, the prices have gone up to Rs 22,000 per tonne from Rs 16,000 per tonne prevalent six months back.
?At present, we are selling the eggs at the wholesale price of Rs 1.79 per egg while the input cost of the egg is around Rs 1.85 per egg. Thus a price rise in poultry products is inevitable,? Ricky Thapar, treasurer, PFI told FE.
Similarly according to PFI, the whole sale price of chicken is around Rs 46 per kg while the input cost is around Rs 48 per kg. The retail price of eggs in Delhi is in the range of Rs 30 ? 34 per dozen while the chicken is sold at around Rs 100 ? 110 per kg. ?If the input costs do not go down soon, the prices of chicken and eggs would go up by 10 – 20%,? Thapar said.
National Egg Co-ordination Committee (NECC), a national body of poultry farmers, had campaigned strongly to ban futures in maize and export of the commodity.