POULTRY Association of Nigeria (PAN) has warned that if urgent steps are not taken to support poultry farmers, prices of eggs may increase from the current Five Thousand Naira (N5,500) to Ten Thousand Naira (N10,000) per crate.
They attributed the rising cost of the commodity to the high transportation cost occasioned by fuel subsidy removal as well as indiscriminate increase in prices of feed by the millers.
The Secretary of PAN, FCT Chapter, Musa Hakeem, stated this yesterday in Abuja during a press briefing to commemorate the World Egg Day.
Hakeem said the Federal Government must, as a matter of urgency, declare a state of emergency on egg production in the country given the serious decline in protein intake, pointing out that Nigerians cannot afford to depend on importation of eggs.
He pointed out, “If we should go by the proportional increase in the prices of these factors mentioned earlier, we will be buying eggs at N10,000 per create, but because we wanted to be compassionate, coupled with the importance of eggs to health, we left the price at the current price of N5,500.”
Hakeem warned that the prices of the protein-giving product may change soon to N6000, going by the increasing prices of poultry feed.
He said, “To the best of my knowledge, the last time we received any grains intervention from the government was three years ago”, pointing out that other respites by the government to cushion the high prices of food are only read on the pages of newspapers.
He called on the government to ensure that it carries PAN along in its intervention activities as they have the data of all the poultry farmers in the FCT.
He lamented that the government was not paying the required attention to the poultry subsector as it has been neglected over time, saying business owners have been operating of their own volition and hoped that the industry does not collapse.
The Chief Executive Officer of Pest Agro Dealers, Jude Arikogu, lamented the indiscriminate increase in prices of feed by millers and also the low measurement of the feeds, saying, “A 25kg bag of feed is hardly up to 23kg when put on our scale.”
Arikogu also lamented that poultry farmers are unable to access funds from the banks as banks are not willing to finance them.
An ex-officio officer of the association at the national level, Ibrahim Lamidi, said the business environment is not favourable to them as they are only trying to ensure Nigerians have eggs on the table.
He encouraged Nigerians to always eat eggs in place of meat saying eggs are more proteinous and cheaper.
Eighteen-Eleven Media