On 31 July 2021, the Poultry Farmers & Breeders Association (MH) organised a virtual press conference and appraised the media of the current poultry issues and its demands to the Government of India. The press conference was attended by international, Indian and local media.
PRESS NOTE
Poultry Sector is one of the most important sectors under Indian Agriculture. The poultry sector provides & ensures the fulfilment of protein requirement and balances the human nutrition. Today, India is one of the largest manufacturers of eggs and broiler meat. In the last two decades Indian Poultry Sector has contributed more than 5% in GDP to the overall Agri sector’s GDP. However, since last one and half year Poultry Sector is facing a number of challenges on increased cost of production, misinformed reality about outbreaks of Bird Flu, Covid-19 restrictions and Natural Calamities.
The recent outbreak of Covid-19 has created a massive crisis thereby initial depletion of demand in chicken products & later created awareness about importance of protein. Initial setbacks posed challenges before the poultry sector & created an unwarranted financial crisis amongst all the poultry farmers and the erosion of working capital has aggravated the situation.
Since last one year, skyrocketing prices of raw materials like soybeans and Maize have added to the woes of poultry farmers. High speculation activities in Soya contacts on NCDX has been disturbing the poultry sector for the last 8 months. For raw material supply, poultry sector largely dependent upon Soyabean. These speculations are one of the main reasons behind skyrocketing prices of eggs and chicken products in the retail market, which may leads to food inflation in the country.
We had a similar situation in 2006 when there was a first outbreak of Avian Influenza in the country. During that time the Government of India, announced Interest Subventions and increased credit duration to the poultry farming for the limited period.
Chicken and Eggs are the only cheapest non vegetarian protein sources available in the market. Now these increased raw material prices directly affecting retail chicken prices. As a result of which chicken is sold at Rs 250-300/kg in the retail market. This may leads to food inflation in the country amid Coronavirus outbreak. Government should look at this issue from a health perspective as Chicken had been endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO) as an immunity booster.
Considering all above aspects, Poultry Farmers & Breeders Association (MH) has put forward the following demands.
Fiscal Relief Measures :
1. Restructuring of Existing Term Loans : We request to reschedule the outstanding term loans, so as to provide extended time (6-12 months) for liquidation of loans in order to prevent the farmers turning into NPA
2. Interest Subvention of Rs 4 % : Considering financial losses, we request to grant interest subvention of at least 4% for a period of three years.
3. Grant Additional Working Capital : We request you to grant additional working capital loans to meet increased cost of productions.
Non Fiscal Relief Measures :
1.To avail Raw Material at fair price : We request Government to make available Soya and Maize to poultry sector at fair price.
2. Allow import of crushed GM Soya seeds/ DOC for captive consumption of end users, poultry farmers. Considering skyrocketing prices of Soyabean, it is requested to allow import of crushed GM Soya seed/ DOC at least for the particular time frame to stabilise raw material market.
3. Removal of Soybean commodity from NCDX: Considering high speculations in Soya contracts on NCDX from the last six months, we request the Government as well as SEBI to remove Soybean as a commodity from NCDX as these speculations have huge potential to disturb the poultry sector or maximising the margins for trade under soya commodity.
Warm Regards
Mr C Vasanthkumar
President
Poultry Farmers & Breeders Association (MH)
