Why poultry farmers are angry with Olam
-PAN intervention may not work unless…
In the last few weeks, smallholder poultry farmers, particularly in the North, have expressed dissatisfaction over how a single big player in the industry, Olam Nigeria, with investment in hatchery and feeds, has also veered into eggs production. The action of the company, according to them, has created a glut in the market.
The farmers are threatening to stop patronising day-old chicks and feeds from Olam if it does not discontinue its egg production and stick to its initial plan of producing day-old chicks and feeds.
This threat, along with other issues, have caused the National Executive Committee of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), the umbrella body of all poultry farmers, processors, service providers, and other actors in the industry, to convene a meeting in Abuja to address the issues raised.
The meeting, which lasted for a whole day, was intense with many of the farmers directing their anger, concern and worry at Olam, which was in attendance to react to the questions and worries expressed by the farmers who came from all parts of the country.
A poultry farmer based in Warri, Delta State, Mr Sam-lucky Emeka Ekukayiwe, said Olam came into Nigeria to provide inputs (dayold chicks and feeds) to poultry farmers “but they delved into eggs production in one way or the other. It might not be intentional but along the way, it came up. That’s why we call them in (to the meeting).
“We don’t feel threatened by them coming into egg production but if something is right, it is right. You cannot give people day-old chicks; you give them feeds to feed the day-old chicks, they lay eggs then you go again to compete with them by also producing the same egg. You are not helping anything.
“Poultry farming is employing about 20 million people. That is staggering for one industry alone. Now, if Olam does that and some farms go under, unemployment will increase. So it is better they play at their level and leave the common farmers to play at their level as well. That way, they will be complementing each other and
unemployment will reduce,” the farmer said.
Alhaji Umar Kibiya, PAN Chairman Kano State Chapter, expressed their angers with the multinationals operating in the country.
“In a situation where you have foreign investment coming into the country, that investment, I think is supposed to be at the upper stream, not at the downstream. So when the multinational come into the production of table eggs, which common Nigerians- a small farmer with ten, thirty, forty layers in the house are producing, then there is a problem.
“The message we gave their MDs was to stop the downstream production for any interventions to work. If any of them come into the downstream, we will fight them with the last drop of our blood,’’ he told Daily Trust during a telephone conversation.
Nasarawa state poultry farmers also threatened to boycott everything that spelled Olam.
Many of them lamented that they could not sell their eggs because big players like Olam has created a huge problem by flooding the market with unprecedented eggs at very low prices.
Bashir Ibrahim, who is a poultry farmer in Keffi, worries that middlemen now get eggs at N650 or less per crate, adding that there was no way smallholder farmers could sell at that price and recover their money.
He said for them to make a profit, the price of table eggs is supposed to be at a flat rate of N850 per crate but at the moment, the buyers are even asking for N600 or N650 and they don’t have a choice than to sell at N750 making them run the farms at loss.
He also lamented that with the crash of a bag of maize to about N5,000, the price of feed by the big players remains the same.
Mr Ezekiel Ibrahim, the national president of PAN, said the company went into egg production because of the circumstances they found themselves in.
“They likely went into overproduction of day-old chicks and because they do not have the market, you know, you have to feed them, thinking they can sell them out at the point-of-lay, nobody is buying them and they start laying. Of course, they want to recover their cost and what have you, then that created a problem in the market, even though glut is almost reoccurring in this country,” he said.
He, however, said the issue has now been resolved.
Reacting, Olam Vice President, Corporate and Government Relations, Mr Ade Adefeko, stressed that the company was not going into full production as many farmers thought.
“We have stated unequivocally that we are not going into that sector; that had been explicitly stated. We stated what we are doing and everybody knows what we are doing. For us, there is no antagonism or resentment. We are all here to contribute to the poultry sector,” he said.
Asked if he was satisfied with the farmers’ position, he said: “Olam is satisfied with the outcome of the meeting because we are members of the association; you cannot operate outside the association. No man is an island. We have large players, we have middle level players and we have small players. What is important is that across the entire value chain, everybody supports the other and that’s what we are trying to do.
“When we came into the industry in 2017, we were welcomed with open arms and that is still the spirit with which we are working,” Mr Adefeko stated.