A file photo shows a man giving feed to chickens at a farm in the city. — New Age photo

The country’s poultry sector is passing tough time due to a fresh rise in the prices of raw materials of poultry feed, poultry sector leaders said.
Poultry farmers said that hatchery owners and poultry feed traders were continuously raising the prices of one-day-old chicks and poultry feed as they wanted to make more profits.
Feed industry owners increased the feed price more than Tk 600 a bag (50 kilograms) in past eight months, poultry farm owners said.
Breeders Association leaders, however, said that there was fresh hike in the prices of corn, soya bean and other poultry raw materials on the international market due to a significant fall in production of items caused by natural calamities.
Feed Industry Association of Bangladesh president Ihtehsham B Shahjahan said the price of soya bean doubled in recent time.
Soya bean price was at Tk 33 to Tk 35 a kg a few months before, but now it is selling at Tk 70 a kg.
Meat and bone meal was at Tk 32 a kg which is now selling at Tk 65 a kg.
The price of corn has increased from Tk 13.50 a kg to Tk 20 a kg and rice polish from Tk 14 a kg to Tk 19 a kg.
Bangladesh Poultry Khamar Rokkha Jatiya Parishad general secretary Khandker Mohammad Mohsin told New Age that the local production of corn, one of the major raw materials of poultry feed, was sufficient this year and it could be exported after meeting domestic demand.
A few hoarders stocked corn at low price when the corn was harvested and now they have increased the price of the item.
He said they (farmers) had to spend Tk 220 to Tk 230 for producing a broiler chicken weighing 1,500 grams and it was selling at Tk 200 wholesale price.
Saidur Rahman Babu, general secretary of the Breeders’ Association of Bangladesh, said that the local market hit up due to the uptrend at the international market and the local farmers were suffering due to high cost of production.
Daudkandi Upazila Poultry Farm Association president Kazi Mostofa Kamal alleged that the feed industry owners had raised the feed price on the pretext of price increase on the international market but they had not cut the feed price when the corn price decreased by Tk 370 to Tk 410 a bag (50 kg) in April.
He demanded setting the price of day-old chicks at Tk 35, providing chicken insurance, supplying free medicine, giving farmers loan without condition and monitoring the sector properly by the government.     
Kazi Mostofa said if the price hike of poultry feed, day-old chicks and the risk of bird flue could not be controlled, a number of small farms would be closed.
Khandker Mohammad said that the bird flue risk was another main cause for the decreased production in the farms.
He urged the government to allow domestic production and import of vaccines for the avian influenza.