Egg prices hit record high

However, higher input costs eat into profits of farms

Egg prices have been moving up and the trend is expected to continue till the Shravan month’s commencement on July 20, when the demand falls; it recover after the festival season is over in late November. Farm-gate prices were at a record high this month and farmers have been earning an average of Rs 4 an egg. On the flip side, the escalating prices of feed ingredients, particularly maize and rape seed, have created holes in the pockets of poultry farmers.

Egg prices rose after farmers reared less birds, after two years of loss; many small poultry farms in the country had suspended operations. This created a scarcity in supply and prices firmed up after April. According to P Selvaraj, chairman of the Namakkal zone (in Tamil Nadu, a major centre, of the National Egg Coordination Committee, the farm-gate price was Rs 3.40 an egg in April and that increased by 50p for two months. However, poultry farmers worry that as prices dip again in July, that of feed ingredients will not till arrival of the next crop, after October.

According to Dinesh Bhonsale, vice-president, Poultry Federation of India: “Maize is the major ingredient in poultry feed and constitutes 50-60 per cent of all the inputs. So, an increase from an average of Rs 14 a kg in April to Rs 17 a kg in June has put the sector in stress. The monsoon delay by almost three weeks has added speculation in commodity prices.”

Farmers are also scouting for new locations to compress their costs, being attracted by the Uttar Pradesh government's incentives under a Poultry Development Policy announced in 2013. A significant number of poultry entrepreneurs from the Barwala-Derabassi-Lalru belt in Punjab/Haryana are making an exit from this traditional and largest poultry cluster of the north and migrating to UP. Interest subventions on loans, concessional power rates and proximity to the market has pushed the shift.