Egg scramble: Haryana poultry farmers protest cold carrier order of UP

GURGAON: Poultry farmers in Haryana have asked the state government to intervene, fearing a hit to their business due to the UP government’s directive to transport eggs over long distances in refrigerated vans fitted with GPS devices.
Haryana is among India’s largest egg producers, but poultry farmers say the industry has had a bumpy ride since 2020, when the pandemic eroded their revenues. According to them, around 3 crore eggs are produced daily in Haryana, and UP is their largest market, with half of the daily produce going to distributors there.

Some associations of poultry farmers have alleged the UP move was an attempt to favour the state’s own industry. “This decision has a clear motive to discourage producers from other states from selling in UP. Some of our orders have been cancelled or some of our trucks are being held at borders and are asked to return,” Subhash Narwal, president of Central Haryana Poultry Farmers’ Association, said on Monday.
On April 15, UP’s animal husbandry department issued a set of guidelines for eggs to be transported in refrigerated vans to ensure quality and hygiene control. The government made it mandatory for trucks or vans to be fitted with GPS devices if eggs are being transported over a distance of 150km or more.
Poultry farmers in Haryana said using a refrigerated van translates into an additional cost of Rs 15,000 to Rs 20,000 for every 80,000 to 1 lakh eggs transported from a farm. “Transport companies have also raised their rates as they too are trying to recover pandemic losses. This will be an added burden, especially for small-scale farmers,” Poultry Federation of India chairman Ramesh Khatri pointed out.
“The past three years have been a washout for us, and if this directive is not revoked, it will be a death knell for the state’s poultry industry,” said Karnal-based poultry farmer Surrinder Bhutani.
According to estimates by the Central Haryana Poultry Farmers’ Association, the state industry earns around Rs 7,000 crore on average every year and employs over 2.5 lakh people.
“The argument that refrigerated vans are required for quality control is not scientific. Poultry farms across India aren’t temperature controlled. Neither are retail stores and eateries,” SP Singh, general manager (north) at Venky’s India.
Haryana government officials said they were observing the situation. “It doesn’t appear that UP has banned any entry of vehicles carrying eggs from other states. It has changed a few norms and that will apply to the players within UP as well,” a senior official of the animal husbandry department said.
UP government officials said there was no discrimination in the order and its sole purpose was to ensure quality. “We received complaints about the quality of eggs. So we held consultation with experts, officials from the food security department and farmers’ organisations. They suggested eggs should be transported in refrigerated vans over long distances… Any farmer from another state who feels this will impact their business can come to UP and set up their farms of cold storage. We will give subsidies,” said Indramani Chaudhary, director of the UP animal husbandry department.
Retired additional director of the department Dr SC Jaiswal also said the main opposition was not of cold storage, but to the rule that producers have to now put a sticker specifying the date of production and shelf-life of eggs. “This is an indirect route of opposition. Moreover, the norm on temperature control is backed by the Central Avian Research Institute and the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) guidelines,” he said.