• Animal feed struggle continues 
• Govt. urged to release dollars for imports

By Maneesha Dullewe The availability of poultry products may see a decline early next year as a shortage of chicks threatens to derail production, The Sunday Morning learns.   The shortage comes as poultry farmers continue to face hardships due to the inability to import animal feed, which has also pushed egg prices up.  All Island Poultry Farmers’ Association Chairman Ajith Gunasekera said: “At present we are facing a shortage of raw materials for animal feed and difficulties in importing them. With the drop in production, corn can no longer be found locally. Import permits have been provided to import corn, but there is a shortage of dollars since banks have no money to release Letters of Credit (LCs). This is the most pressing issue at the moment.” At least 70-75% of the production expenditure of eggs and chicken is spent on animal feed, he noted. When animal feed becomes scarce, the prices of these food products increase.  Gunasekera claimed that if the Government were to release dollars on a special permit to import the required animal feed, poultry farmers could import corn from India within two weeks. “We produce essential foods and the Government has given some relief through banks for the import of essential foods. Accordingly, if we are given dollar facilities to import corn and raw materials for animal feed through State or private banks, we can import these soon and continue production.” According to Gunasekera, the second issue is the fact that the Government has set the price of eggs lower than their production cost through its gazette notification. “For the past two months, poultry farmers have not bought chicks for their farms, since eggs can’t be sold at the set price given the higher production costs.” “One of the biggest problems poultry farmers are facing is that the companies breeding chicks aren’t importing hens. For a year, we typically need around 80,000 hens – a number that is fully imported. This year, only 10,000 hens have been imported. Farmers no longer buy chicks because they can’t sell eggs at the gazetted price, given the massive loss they will incur,” he said.  He claimed that this would become a massive problem from January 2023 given the shortage of chicks, noting that there would be an egg shortage in the December and April seasons if no hens were imported now.  He added that even the existing hens currently laying eggs were being sold for meat since selling eggs was no longer profitable.  With chicken meat and eggs being essential foods, Gunasekera said poultry farmers had asked the Government to permit animal feed to be imported under the essential foods category since no chicks were being bred at present due to the shortage of feed. However, no response had been received yet, he noted.  He also stated that if the Government were to permit poultry farmers to use the surplus rice in the market, they could use it for animal feed, thereby resolving the shortage.  When The Sunday Morning contacted Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera on the matter, he asserted that there should be no issues relating to the importation of animal feed, since farmers had been allowed to make use of open account imports and taxes had been reduced.  “The issue is that they don’t import; there are no other obstacles,” he said, noting that all facilities had been provided for importation and charging that they were waiting until the last moment to import.  Attempts to contact Trade Ministry Secretary S.T. Kodikara in this regard proved unsuccessful.