High prices of Maize hits poultry industry hard.

Pune, Dec 22 (UNI) The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) has appealed to the Union Government to immediately ban forward trading and export of maize, as the high cost has affected the poultry industry by 90-100 per cent over the previous year.

A NECC statement stated that usually during this time of the year, maize prices range between Rs 500/- to Rs 550/- per quintal.

However, this year it has gone upto Rs 900 and in some parts of North India, it is as high as Rs 1000/- per quintal. This kind of steep increase has not been seen for the past 30 years of the industry's history.

The NECC statement stated that the main cause for the steep hike and unwarranted increase is the forward trading and export of maize.

The statement said that taking advantage of forward trading which is permitted by Government of India (GOI), multinationals companies like Cargill, ITC, exporters like Adnani Exports and private traders have cornered huge quantities of maize and are withholding grain from the market.

The non-availability and steep increase in the price of maize, a crucial ingredient of poultry feed which accounts for 80 per cent of the cost of eggs and broilers has hit the small farmer who has still to come up from the losses incurred during the outbreak of bird flu.

NECC has therefore appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to take up the matter immediately and remove maize from the list of commodities allowed for forward trading and ban its export.

NECC has also appealed to the Prime Minister to extend the interest subvention and moratorium on repayment of bank loans availed by the poultry farmers that were granted as part of relief package in wake of bird flu - by one more year.

UNI DWN SD SKB1609