The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has raised the alarm that the industry is on the verge of shutting down by January 2021 if urgent action is not taken to address the constant rising cost of meal.
The association said the rate at which Soybeans and maize are being exported out of the country may crash the industry.
Highlighting the challenges facing the industry, PAN’s National President, Elder Ezekiel Ibrahim, during a press conference recently, said most worrisome challenges at the moment was the soybeans supply and demand situation, and that constant exportation of soybeans and maize from Nigeria may spell doom for the industry.
He said declaring a state of emergency for the poultry farmers through the association to organise a national conference on poultry production in Nigeria was the next thing to do.
“There is the scarcity and near absence of Soybeans in the Nigerians markets at this period of harvest. The reasons being adduced as responsible for the scarcity and high cost is the insecurity in the country, climate change and activities of traders buying and hoarding the grains. Intelligence and field reports have also indicated that the Soybeans in seeds and meals are being exported out of the country thereby causing the present crisis being witnessed.
“Soybeans is selling between N215,000 – 250,000 per tons as at today where available. The poultry industry feed cost is about 75% of the cost of poultry production, and this has risen by over 75% between March and November, 2020. In March, the price of finished feed sold between N2,650 -3000 is now selling between N4,600 – 5,300 per 25kg bag,” he lamented.
He stated further that these has led to the closure of small and medium sized poultry farms thereby threatening about five to 10 million jobs especially at the peri urban and rural areas.
“These challenges has led to divestments in the poultry sector due to ack of investors confidence, devastating fall of fortunes in the entire value chains, high cost if eggs and poultry meat and eventual non availability of poultry proteins, significant drop in the contribution of Poultry to the Agricultural Gross Domestic Product (AGDP) of the economy thereby negating the government drive for Agricultural transformation,”
The General Manager, Premier Feed Mills Company limited, Mr Austin Dahyop, also said in recent time, the good Soybeans production due to the good quality of the soybeans seed produced in Nigeria attracts premium from foreigners, hence the exportation.
On shutting down, he said since the commodities for feed production are scarce and costly, people are just managing because of the Chrismass but that by January most Nigerians may stop buying poultry products, hence the industry may shutting.
“We also have smart business men who are buying and hoarding this commodities so they can sell later at a higher price.
“The #EndSARS protest also affected the movement of poultry product, but the biggest challenges so far this year is the high rate of feed price. At the beginning of this year, we had a mild bird flu and a lots of the big farmers suffered it,” he said.
The PAN boss, said there has not been any visible palliative from the government to the sector, and therefore called for urgent government interventions to save the sector as the current exportation may cause doom for the poultry industry if nothing urgent is done.
The Association therefore urged the government to immediately halt soybeans, Soybeans and maize exportation as to protect local food system and security.
“We wish to suggest that the government should partially keep the border open for markets in agriculture and critical food products in transparent and predictable manner, but not the export of under produced foods either formally or informally.
“That the government and it’s relevant agencies should engage with the Association on constant basis on issues that affect the industry before critical policy decision are taken in order to remove most of the ambiguities in policies that affect the industry and the generality of Nigerians. Duty and other taxes exemptions be granted for the importation of the maize and Soybeans in order to assist the industry to achieve it’s target and get prepared to participate in the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AFCTA).
