International market prices of poultry feed ingredients had dropped in the second quarter of this calendar year, yet locally produced feed has turned anything but cheap.
In the last week of March, marginal poultry farmer Delowar Hossain bought nearly 4,000 one-day-old Sonali chicks from a large poultry company. After rearing them for 40 days, when he tried selling them, he found it shockingly difficult to recover his production cost, let alone make any profit.
Poultry farmers and feed makers should refrain from over-profiteering by hiking prices indiscriminately, according to Agriculture Minister Muhammad Abdur Razzaque.
The government aims to improve food security in Bangladesh by increasing the availability of poultry meat to 160 grams per person each day and eggs to 208 pieces per person each year but to achieve this goal, the production and retail cost of these items should be reduced.
The government targets making available 160 grams of meat a day and 208 eggs a year for per person by 2041, said Monjur Mohammad Shahjada, director general of the Department of Livestock Services.