Rising egg price brings relief to poultry farmers

Rumours that consumption of eggs and chicken meat could cause COVID-19 hit the trade

With improvement in supply chain of poultry goods from Namakkal, the egg rates here have also started improving bringing relief for poultry farmers.

Namakkal is major hub in production of poultry eggs and chicken in the country and over 3 crore of eggs are exported from here every day to different parts of the country and to foreign. A recent wave of rumours that consumption of eggs and chicken meat could cause COVID-19 severely hit the trade and egg prices dropped up to ₹1.50 paise.

On Monday, Namakkal zone of National Egg Co-ordination Committee suggested farm price of ₹4.20.

P. Selvaraj, Chairman of NECC, Namakkal zone, said that improvement in supply of products and reduction in production has led to increase in price. “Poultry farmers here reduced production for past few weeks and only maintenance feed was given in farms due to low prices and affect in supply due to lockdown. Currently, the supply has improved as there is a steady supply to Kerala and other parts of the State as well”, he said.

Vangili Subramanian, president of Tamil Nadu Egg Marketing Society, said that the prices would improve if a certainty is brought in regarding functioning of meat shops across the State. “Currently, the Kerala market is very supportive, hence prices have improved. About 60-70 lakh eggs are supplied to Kerala. As production was reduced, there is not enough supply in accordance with consumption demand. The COVID-19 rumours has faded and trade has started improving. However, since the meat shops are not allowed to function at many places fearing spread of COVID-19, trade has been affected. He added that it would take few more weeks for farms here to return to regular production rates.

PV. Senthil, general secretary of Livestock and Agri Farmers’ Trade Association, said that door delivery system should be brought in for delivery of all goods. “Though goods are supplied from here to wholesale markets in Chennai and Coimbatore, there seems to be hurdles in supplies to retail areas in some places. Government can instead ensure door delivery of all such goods and it should also ensure hygiene of retailers by screening them to ensure prevention of COVID-19 spread”, he said.