The Poultry Association of Nigeria has warned that the price of a crate of eggs may increase from N5,500 to N10,000 due to escalating costs of poultry feeds in the country.
The association attributed the rising cost of eggs to the high cost of transportation as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy as well as indiscriminate increase in prices of feed by the millers. The Secretary of Chapter Musa Hakeem said this at a press briefing to commemorate World Egg Day on Saturday in Abuja.
He said “The Federal Government must as a matter of urgency declare a state of emergency on egg production in the country given the serious decline in protein intake. If we should go by the proportional increase in the prices of these factors mentioned earlier, we will be buying eggs at N10,000 per crate, but because we wanted to be compassionate, coupled with the importance of eggs for health, we left the price at the current price of N5,500.”
He also warned that the prices of eggs may change soon to N6000 going by the increasing prices of poultry feeds.
He said, “To the best of my knowledge, the last time we received any grain intervention from the government was three years ago. Other interventions by the government to cushion the high prices of food are only read on the pages of the newspaper.”
He urged the government to include PAN in their intervention activities as they have the database of FCT poultry farmers. He emphasized that the government is not paying much attention to the poultry subsector as it has been neglected over time, noting business owners have been operating in their own volition and hoped that the industry does not fall.
