Nigeria’s poultry farmers who have before now suffered huge losses owing to their inability to sell their poultry products are now smiling to the bank as demand for local chicken rises and price surges.
The situation has made poultry farmers ramp up their production to meet the increasing demand for chicken by the country’s 200 million people due to the recent government border shutdown.
Since the border closure nine weeks ago, the country has been able to reduce pressure on its foreign exchange reserves as Nigeria attempt to stop smuggling of frozen chicken and turkey.
“The demand for how local chicken has increased tremendously since the border closure. Buyers are visiting our farms daily to make orders which we have not experienced before,” said Onallo Akpan, director-general of Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN).
“We have sold all our boilers and have restocked for December. Lots of farmers are now expanding their production to meet up with demand especially in December” Akpan said.
He stated that local production has increased to about 7,000metric tons while stressing that if the border closure persists, the country could cascade its production to 1.5metric tons in six months.
Prices of frozen chicken and life birds have also surged since the closure.
BusinessDay survey on some markets in Lagos shows that a cartoon of Nigerian chicken now sells between N12,000 and N12,500 as against N8,000 and N10,000 sold before the border closure. This shows a 25 percent increase in price.
Similarly, a cartoon of imported frozen ‘Orobo’ chicken formerly sold for N8,500 or N9,000 now goes for N15,000, showing a 67percent increase in price.
Prices of life whole broiler now sells for N3,500 as against N3,000 sold before the border shutdown, while layers now sells for N2,000 as against N1,700 eight weeks ago.
Nigeria’s headline inflation accelerated to 11.24percent in September from 11.02percent in August when the border commenced, while food inflation moves in an upward trajectory to 13.51percent from 13.17 over the same period.
Experts say the country will further experience price increases in poultry products as the festive season approaches, noting that the country cannot currently meet demand in chicken and turkey production.
The 2016 Agriculture Promotion Policy document released by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture puts Nigeria’s annual chicken consumption at 200 million birds and supply at 140 million birds, indicating a gap of 60 million birds.
The gap has constantly fuelled the smuggling of frozen chicken through the land borders into markets across the country.
But poultry farmers in Africa’s most populous country are optimistic that with the recent increase in local demand, the country will further boost its production as they are now expanding their operations.
They noted that investments in the sector have been stagnated for years owing to low demand for their products.
“The recent rise in demand has led more farmers to open more farms to rear chicken especially for December thereby creating jobs,” said Olabode Adetoyi, managing director of Hi-Nutrients.
“The Nigerian poultry industry can increase production to meet local demand. We have not been able to expand because farmers have been struggling to sell their products,” Adetoyi said.
He stated that feed meal producers are also expanding their operations as farmers are purchasing more feeds for their birds.
Dayo Gawati, chief executive, Fdot Farms said: “At the moment I am planning to increase the production because local chicken is selling like hot cake, everybody wants it now.”
“Right now what we supply is unable to meet demand but with support for farmers in form of single-digit loans, we would boost production and bridge the gap,” he said.
Josephine Okojie & Bunmi Bailey
