Sharp decline in the price of broilers over the fear of coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak has started affecting the small poultry farmers who fear that summer season will further affect their business.
On Thursday, the farm price of broiler was ₹ 28 a kg in Erode whereas the retail price was ₹ 80 to ₹ 100 a kg. While the wholesale price of egg was ₹ 3.23, it was sold at ₹ 3.50 to ₹ 4 in retail shops.
There are hundreds of small farmers in the district who rear less than 10,000 birds and sell them mostly to retail shops and in local markets. “Last month, the farm price of chicken was over ₹95 a kg, but now, it is less than ₹ 30 a kg,” said Moorthy of Chellapampalayam.
He said that the price of feeds had doubled in the past two years where as the farm rate had dropped drastically. “Price of maize and soybean are on the rise. Selling broiler for ₹ 30 a kg is a huge loss,” he added.
Many owners of poultry farms expressed fear that the virus scare would have a big impact on the sector for another one or two months and summer season would further affect the sector. “We obtain loan from banks and run the units. But we incur loss of over ₹ 30 to ₹ 40 per kg now,” said a poultry owner. The farm owners said that they were unable to bear the loss due to increase in cost of production and drop in demand and feared that many units would get closed in the coming days.