Govt. to import eggs after price controls decimate layer, parent bird populations
COLOMBO – Sri Lanka’s cabinet of ministers have given the go ahead to import eggs Trade Minister Nalin Fernando said, as domestic prices rose steeply after price controls disrupted farming on top of a currency collapse.
“The cabinet of ministers gave the go ahead to take decisions according to the needs of the people, and import if necessary,” Fernando told reporters in Colombo after a cabinet meeting on Monday (2).
“If necessary, we will look at the quantity and import to give eggs at a lower price to the people,” he said.
Market sources said eggs can be imported from India for about 35 rupees.
Sri Lanka’s eggs were priced at around 20 to 25 rupees before the rupee collapsed from 200 to 360 to the US dollar. Sri Lanka’s poultry and egg prices are generally higher than the world due to import licensing on maize, which has pushed up production costs.
As a result of protection given to maize farmers and collectors, Sri Lanka has lost an opportunity to be a competitive export producer of poultry products.
Eggs spiked to 65 rupees after the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) imposed price controls amid high prices and shortages of feed, leading to killing of layers for meat.
Industry officials say lack of demand for layer chick then led to a collapse in the parent bird population in hatcheries and farmers ordering chicks have to wait until March.
Sri Lanka’s daily egg output is estimated to have dropped to about 4 million a day from the normal 7 million after farmers killed layer chicken for meat in the wake of price controls imposed by the CAA last year.
Sri Lanka needs around 80,000 parent birds to produce the required layer chicks but now there are only around 42,000, at the main hatcheries according to the All Island Poultry Association. It takes about 5.5 months grow both layer parent birds and birds.
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