Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has alerted Nigerians to brace up for a higher cost of chicken, eggs, and other poultry products ahead of Christmas due to increased prices of feeds and concentrates, including maize and soybeans.
Speaking in Abeokuta at the 2021 Poultry Show organised by the association with the theme: “De-risking the Nigerian poultry industry: Stabilising critical inputs and market prices for sustainability”, Olalekan Odunsi, chairman of the 2021 poultry show, said poultry farmers were facing socio-economic challenges with negative effect on the industry.
Odunsi, who lamented that insecurity, high cost of animal feeds, and exchange rate have forced some poultry farmers out of business, added that the challenges have cut the number of farmers producing eggs, chicken and, other products, as many of have closed shop.
“A lot of farms have closed down. Definitely, the few ones that are still available, the cost will be high. Moreover, prices of maize and soybeans have continued to increase when they are supposed to be going down.
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While appealing to the Federal Government to ban the exportation of soybeans and maize to allow farmers to produce for local use, Odunsi said, “With this, I think people should brace up for a higher cost of chicken during the Yuletide season. Nevertheless, when you compare chicken and beef, you will discover chicken is still cheaper even as of now.
“What is impeding more on poultry production is foreign exchange. A lot of things we use are imported; only maize and soybeans are grown in the country. All the additives, multivitamins, medicament that we are using, we import them all. Even the fish feeds, we are not producing locally, we import. So, all these are impacting the cost of production.
“So, let’s brace up, but we will try our best to make sure people have good meat to eat.”
Meanwhile, Olabode Adetoyi, Ekiti State commissioner for agriculture and food security, has asked all the Southwest states to create the enabling environment for farmers to operate, saying Ekiti has granted tax holidays and provided security to all agribusiness-based investors operating in the state.
Also, Adeola Odedina, commissioner for agriculture in Ogun State, expressed the state’s commitment to improved livestock production through a public-private partnership approach.
Odedina said the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led administration was committed to working with farmers to encourage mass production of livestock and poultry products for export.
“When it comes to poultry farming, you know Ogun is number one and that is why we don’t joke with it. We are ready to partner with interested pilots to make profits so that stakeholders can also key into it.
“We are doing this to continue to make Ogun State a destination of choice for investors”, he said.
