Who will save Jos poultry egg producers?
We are back to the time of the year when there is usually massive egg glut and slump in the farm gate price of egg occasioned by low demand of the commodity by end users and concomitant increase in feeding cost leading to farmers’ inability to continue feeding the laying stock. The sign of the bad times is marked with large stocks of crates of eggs in the farms and at the egg wholesale markets. This creates a very bad buyers’ market situation. Eggs are being sold according to what the wholesaler who usually controls the price at the consumer market offers the producer. At this time, eggs supplied on credit are paid for after two or three weeks. Meanwhile, feed sellers will demand for cash payment for purchased feeds! The farmers now sell off the laying birds with anger!
Chicken egg remains a very good substitute for meat, fish or any other protein source in terms of cost and nutrient content. Many current researches have shown that egg consumption is very healthy for both young and the elderly; hence its continued production and relative cost advantage can never be overemphasised.
Jos has been known as the epicentre of egg production for almost all the northern parts of Nigeria because of its peculiar favourable weather conditions that suits commercial production of eggs. Thus, the egg production industry had become a large employer of labour and source of income for a good number of the inhabitants of the area. Many others are engaged down the value chain such as wholesalers, packagers, transporters, retailers, dealers in poultry droppings etc.
The last breakeven price per crate of egg had been around 2000. This has now dropped to less than 1500, thereby, throwing the hapless farmers into a precarious position. A bag of layers’ mash on the average currently sells for 10,000. Two hundred layers producing eggs at 75 per cent will consume conservatively one bag of feed to produce 150 eggs or five crates that can only fetch N7500. This leaves a deficit of 2500 just on the cost of buying the one bag of feed, excluding other numerous production costs. This is disheartening and discouraging for the hapless farmers to continue in the business.
The resultant effect is that more than 75 per cent of the egg producers have closed down their farms because of the excruciating production environment that they have found themselves in. This has thrown many people into the unemployment market as there are just fewer farms to work in. The few farms that are surviving are still finding it very difficult to sell their eggs at a profit.
The poverty situation in the country in the recent past has exacerbated the situation. A large proportion of the masses cannot afford even a marginal increase in the price of eggs because of the elasticity of the demand for the product and its substitutes. The insecurity situation has also compounded the situation as consumers in distant places hardly get constant supplies due to incessant supply cuts. The school feeding programme of the APC administration had opened up a vista of hope when the programme was running, as they mopped up eggs thereby averting egg gluts.
Processing of eggs into various products as a means of prolonging its shelf life is an old practice in developed economies since the 1950s when global fresh egg consumption started declining. Government should provide an enabling environment and support for food processors and industrialists to produce liquid egg products, dried egg products, frozen egg products and specialty egg products. These will go a long way into ensuring a robust and profitable egg production industry and vibrant value chains
In the interim, there should be a concerted intensification of the maize production campaign to increase maize output. Presently, man, livestock and industry are competing for the much that is produced. Maize cost constitutes about 60 per cent of the cost of feed in Nigeria, whereas it is much lower in other climes. Bringing down the price of maize in Nigeria will go a long way into keeping the egg producers in the business of egg production.
Occasionally, governments at all levels should engage in egg buy back schemes as a way of guaranteeing minimum egg prices in the country. The purchased eggs can be supplied to internally displaced persons, schools, hospitals and other vulnerable citizens. This will ensure that farmers will remain in business.
We, therefore, expect the next administration to live up to the expectation of alleviating the present sufferings of chicken egg producers by doing the needful.