Some poultry farmers in Lagos State have attributed the continuous increase in the price of poultry produce to middlemen’s interference and the rising cost of raw materials.
The farmers shared their concerns in separate interviews with StarReporters on Friday in Lagos.
National Publicity Chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Mr Godwin Egbebe, blamed the rising prices on what he described as the greed of middlemen who inflate prices for profit.
“The reason for the price hike of poultry produce is closely linked to the problem of the middlemen. Poultry farmers do not make as much profit as the middlemen,” he said.
“The only time we were able to fight the middlemen and regularise the price of poultry was during the Ounje Eko intervention by the Lagos State Government. The middlemen for some time during that period were unable to exploit the prices because the government was our major off-taker,” he added.
Egbebe noted that since the suspension of the Ounje Eko programme, prices had climbed again, largely due to middlemen. He also pointed out that prices of essential raw materials such as corn, soya, and groundnut paste have increased.
“At farm gate, a crate of eggs sells between N5,000 and N5,100 depending on the size, while the middlemen, on the other hand, sell between N5,800 and N6,200,” he explained.
“We hope the Lagos State Government will extend its intervention in the poultry sector to cripple the price manipulations of the middlemen.”
Mr Adeniyi Adeniji, another poultry farmer, said the rising cost of food was a general trend and not restricted to the poultry sector.
“The price increase in the poultry sector is not peculiar to the sector only. There are price increases across all food produce sectors in the market,” he said.
He explained that although the cost of some feed ingredients like corn had slightly dropped due to harvests, it was not enough to significantly reduce egg prices.
“At the farm gate, we maintain a price rate of N5,000 per crate and that is the best we can do as farmers,” he added.
Mrs Agnes Muyi, a poultry farmer in the Ipaja area, said that price adjustments were unavoidable due to rising production costs.
“We have no choice but to sell our produce factoring the cost of production,” she said.
“The cost of production and feed in the poultry sector is on the increase and as it does, the price of eggs and other poultry produce will be on the increase. Our customers still patronise us as they know that the price increase is not limited to the poultry sector alone.”
(NAN)