*Pix above: Crates of eggs
Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has warned that if urgent steps are not taken to support poultry farmers, prices of eggs may increase from the current N5,500 to N10,000 per crate.
They attributed the rising cost of the protein to high cost of transportation as a result of fuel subsidy removal as well as indiscriminate increase in prices of feed by the millers.
The Secretary of PAN, FCT Chapter, Musa Hakeem, said this at a press briefing to commemorate the World Egg Day on Saturday in Abuja.
Hakeem said the Federal Government must, as a matter of urgency, declare a State of emergency on Egg production in the country given the serious decline in protein intake, saying Nigerians cannot afford to depend on importation of eggs.
He said ,”If we should go by the proportional increase in the prices of these factors mentioned earlier, we will be buying eggs at N10,000 per create, but because we wanted to be compassionate, coupled with the important of eggs for health, we left the price at the current price of N5,500.”
Hakeem warned that the prices of the protein may change soon to N6000 going by the increasing prices of poultry feed.
He said: “to the best of my knowledge, the last time we received any grains intervention from the government was three years ago,” saying other respite by the government to cushion the high prices of food are only read on the pages of the newspaper.
He called on the government to ensure that they carry PAN along in their intervention activities as they have the data of all the poultry farmers in the FCT.
He lamented that the government is not paying the required attention to the poultry subsector as it has been neglected over time, saying business owners have been operating in their own volition and hoped that the industry does not crash.
The Chief Executive Officer of Pest Agro Dealers Jude Arikogu lamented the indiscriminate increase in prices of feed by millers and also the low measurement of the feeds, saying “a 25kg bag of feed is hardly up to 23kg when put on our scale.”
Arikogu also lamented that poultry farmers are unable to raise finance from the banks as banks are not willingly to finance them.
The Ex officio officer of the association at the National level Ibrahim Lamidi said the business environment is not favourable to them as they are only trying to ensure Nigerians have eggs on the table.
He encouraged Nigerians to always eat eggs in the place of meat, saying eggs are more proteinous and cheaper.///
