Small scale poultry farmers likely to be hit by price control

Anjana Samarasinghe

PRICE CONTROL: The All Island Poultry Association (AIPA) says price control in poultry will affect the small scale poultry farmers who represent 60 percent of the industry.

Chairman, AIPA, Dr. D. Wanasinghe told the Daily News that AIPA has not discussed the issue yet but they expect to meet the Minister of Trade, Marketing Development, Co-operative and Consumer Services Bandula Gunawardana, to explain the situation of the industry.

Prices in the poultry industry are determined by feed prices and other inputs to poultry farming. There is a 25% shortage of day old chicks in the industry.

Today the price of a day old chick has risen to Rs 100 where as it should be Rs. 42. Feed prices have gone up by 14% since last November due to cess on maize. VAT has been imposed on four stages of the production process too.

Pettah market traders too manipulate chicken prices. They buy live birds from small-scale farmers and keep a Rs. 75 profit margin for each kilo of poultry when selling to consumers, he said.

On Monday the price of chicken in Pettah market was nearly Rs. 350 while it was Rs. 275 in supermarkets.

The Government decided to control the price of ten commodities including poultry through the Consumer Affairs Authority (CAA) recently.