Nigeria poultry industry faces January 2021 collapse, farmers warn

THE POULTRY AS SOCIATION OF NIGERIA (PAN) has called for a state of emergency to be declared in the poultry industry warning that the industry is at risk of being shut down completely by January 2021 if the government does not take necessary action to reduce the high cost of grains and other challenges currently besieging the poultry industry,

Ezekiel Ibrahim, national president of the association stated this at a media briefing following an emergency meeting of poultry farmers under the aegis of the association, held in Abuja.

Ibrahim expressed worry that soybeans and maize, major poultry feeds, have become scarce and expensive in the markets at this period of harvest which he attributed to high cost and spates of insecurity in the country, climate change and hoarding by marketers. He added that intelligence reports indicate export of soybeans in seeds and meals at the detriment of local supply.

According to him, the government’s support for the industry with the release of 5,000mt of maize at subsidised prices with the expectation that the price of maize will fall or stabilise during the harvest season did not yield the expected result for poultry farmers and stakeholders as prices continue to soar. He further noted that the prices of maize have risen from N95, 000 to N165, 000 per tonne, while soybean currently sells for between N215, 000 to N250, 000 per tonne.

He explained that the price hike and the grains supply situation in the country have made it difficult for poultry farmers to sustain their businesses as the poultry industry feed cost is about 75 per cent of the cost of poultry production with a bag of feed, which previously sold for N2,650, currently N5,300 per 25kg bag.

According to him, the poultry industry worth over N10 trillion with a provision of more than 20 million direct and indirect jobs to Nigerians lost billions of naira during the covid-19 lockdown resulting in the closure of many small and medium size poultry farms. The industry, he explained is further weakened by the rising cost of poultry feeds leaving the industry at the risk of being shut down by 2021.

Ibrahim charged the government to take immediate measures at regulating prices of the poultry feed commodities and ensure they are readily available in the market as only a timely intervention is capable of rescuing the industry from crumbling.