ECONOMYNEXT – Sri Lanka’s egg production would pick up by year end and there would be no need to import eggs while costs will also fall with taxes on inputs being lowered, Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said.
“There would be no need to import eggs from next year,” Amaraweera said at a press briefing held at the Presidential Media Center on Thursday.
The daily requirement of eggs in the country is 7 million. Amaraweera said by last week local production was up to 6 million eggs.
Sri Lanka’s egg production was devastated by price controls imposed by the Consumer Affair Authority, as chicken feed prices went up amid local forex shortage and a global commodity bubble.
The government had also imposed restrictions on maize imports which poultry farmers use for chicken feed.
The import tax which was at 75 rupees a kilo was later lowered to 25 rupees.
“Under a small and medium scale poultry farm development project, we are looking at producing day-old country chicks, increasing egg production in rural areas and increasing nutrition at a cost of 48 million rupees,” Amaraweera said.
“There are currently over 3,420,000 chickens in farms, and it is expected these animals will lay eggs by December.”
Sri Lanka imposes restrictions on maize imports to give extra profits to maize farmers and collectors, making proteins more expensive, despite malnutrition among children of poor families and stunting.
An over-arching ‘self-sufficiency’ or autarky ideology, involving economic nationalism is also another reason for restrictions on food. As a result of taxes on grain, eggs can be imported at lower prices from other countries and Sri Lankan poultry products miss an export opportunity.
Before the government intervened with price controls leading to the closure of chicken farms, the domestic demand for poultry and eggs were met by the local private sector.
But domestic poultry production dropped by 30 percent and egg production by 50 percent.
Sri Lanka’s annual production before the pandemic and the economic crisis was 230,000 metric tons of chicken. Per capita chicken consumption was estimated to be 11kg a year.
Poultry industrialists say the addition of large numbers of new broiler chickens to farms should bring local poultry and egg production back up to where it was before the crisis by the end of this year. (Colombo/Sept15/2023)
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