February 23: The poultry industry, which the government has declared to be self-sufficient, is at risk of collapsing. Poultry farmers have said that the business, which has an investment of  Rs 160 billion, is in danger of collapsing due to the loss during the Covid-19 pandemic and the slowdown in the world economy. The government declared the poultry industry to be self-sufficient two years ago.

Due to the ups and downs in the world economy, the prices of raw materials and medicines for the production of chicken feeds have increased, and the danger of farmers not even getting the cost price has increased. According to the president of the Nepal Hatchery Industry Association, Rishi Ram Paudel, hatchery businessmen have started shutting down the industry because they are not getting the price of chicks according to the production cost. 

Out of 368 industries, 150 have been closed. The industries that are operating are also running at 60 per cent capacity. Similarly, businessmen claim that 50 per cent of the 114 seed industries are shut.

Under normal conditions, the hatchery industry in Nepal used to produce 4.5 million chicks per week. Now the production capacity has been reduced by 2 million to 2.5 million. 

"After the prices of raw materials such as feed and medicines skyrocketed, the farmers stopped asking for chicks," said Chairman Paudel, "We are forced to sell chicks that cost Rs 55 for Rs 40.”

There was also a situation where hundreds of thousands of chickens had to be destroyed because they were not sold. Even in such a situation, the middleman imported ready-made meat from India a month ago.

Two years ago, the price of corn used for feed was Rs 20 per kg. Now it has reached Rs 42. Meanwhile, the price of soybean has increased from Rs 75 per kg to Rs 125. The price of medicines has also gone up, due to which poultry farmers have also started to shift to other profession, said Dineshraj Mishra, general secretary of the Poultry Traders Federation.

He said that he is unable to pay the interest and instalments of the bank.

The ups and downs in the poultry business have affected the consumers. Due to the high price of raw materials, the price of broiler chicken meat, which was Rs 330 a kg until a month ago, has increased to Rs 360, according to Meat Traders Association.

Nepal Egg Producers Association increased the price of eggs from Wednesday on the initiative of egg producers who were not getting the price according to their cost due to the dominance of middlemen in the market. According to the increased price, farmers will get Rs 10.16 paise per egg. Earlier, the per-piece price received by the farmers was Rs 8.25.