Poultry industry in crisis over hike in maize price

Kolkata, Dec 22 (UNI) The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) has appealed to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to immediately ban forward trading and export of maize in the wake of hike in maize price.

In a letter to the Prime Minister, copies of which were also given to Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, the NECC called for extending by a year the interest subvention and moratorium on repayment of Bank loan, granted to the following Bird Flu earlier this year.

Poultry industry was in severe crisis due to an unprecedented increase in the price of maize, the main ingredient of poultry feed and accounts for more than over 80 per cent of the cost of production of eggs and broilers.

The NECC said though the current price of eggs and chicken in the retail market was high, poultry farmers were actually losing more money now compared to last year as the break-even level for production had gone up because of high price of maize.

It said the reasons for this unwarranted increase were forward trading and export of maize, adding that multinational companies and private traders had cornered huge quantity of maize and were withholding the grain from the market taking advantage of forward trading.

Non-availability and the steep increase in the price of this most important feed ingredient was threatening the very survival of small farmers, it said.

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