Financial Times

Unnecessary scare over bird flu when situation is under control
Lankan chicken farmers’ industry blasts the media
By Quintus Perera
KULIYAPITIYA -- Chandani Sandamali is a charming young mother with a child who happily supplements her income as a supervisor at one of the poultry feed mixing plants at Hettipola in this region, with a small poultry business on her own. But like many others whose survival depends on poultry, she is an angry person – essentially with the media.

“As a result of a large amount of adverse publicity in the newspapers and through television of a non-existent ‘Kukul Una’ (Bird Flu), regular buyers of chicken have reduced their purchases. There is real panic among poultry farmers,” she said, with a worried look on her face.

Sandamali said that like her, a large number of housewives have taken to poultry farming which has been a booming business here. “I increased my farm to 1,000 birds and have consistently maintained this number and earned a good income by selling chicken as broilers”.

Referring to unnecessary publicity over the bird flu scare, she said: “Alarmed farmers rushed to sell their bird stocks at prevailing prices few weeks ago. But when they saw that it was hard to sell at the market price at Rs 125 per kilo, they went down to almost half the price at Rs 60 to 70. Now they are unable to sell at any price.”

An anxious Sandamali also disposed her 500 birds at a very low price and is now trying her best to sell the balance, ending dreams of a lucrative business. Last month she sold at Rs 125 at a time when chicken prices were stabilized and consistent.

“Anne Mahaththaya, Paththara Kaarayoi, Rupawahiniyayi hari aparaadhayake neda keruwe. Ape gamme karmaanthei vinaasha karala demma neda?” (What a crime the newspapers and the television channels have done to destroy this flourishing village industry),” she said – both angry and tears welling up in her eyes.

As a team from The Sunday Times FT discovered in a trip across this region best known for the poultry industry, Sandamali was in essence reflecting the feelings, hurt, pain and trauma of a large number of farmers who have lost their farms and are badly hit as fears of the dreaded bird flu disease spread far and wide – despite government and industry assurances that Sri Lanka is unaffected and is capable of handling any situation even if bird flu is discovered.

As many as 25 percent of the population here are dependant on livestock especially poultry farming and falling income levels mean, families are struggling to survive. While over the years millions of rupees have been pumped into the rural economy through poultry farming uplifting the living conditions of many of them, they are now facing the threat of being nearly wiped out.

The number of seminars/workshops and sessions with the media last week in Colombo by all sections of the industry including big time producers explaining that chicken is safe for consumption and that there is no need to panic, showed the level of desperation in the industry.

In Kuliyapitiya, almost all the farmers whom The Sunday Times FT met in these areas blamed the media for creating a situation of bringing a flourishing lucrative rural industry to the verge of total collapse. At many of the farms, we were treated as intruders and some of them refused to discuss details or meet with us.

R. A. Leelaratne is one of the millers who mixes poultry feed in Udubaddawa. Some poultry farmers bring maize to be crushed; some poonac to be crushed and Leelaratne has 10 workers at his plant. “They have been with me for the last 15 years. During the last few months I used to mix around 8 tons a day, but now it has gone down to around one to two tons.”

Most of the small farmers who have been raising 500 to 2,000 birds have already sold their bird stock and closed down their farms. Leelaratne has been catering to around 20 farmers who altogether have around half a million birds.
The core poultry farming industry in Sri Lanka is concentrated in areas like Hettipola, Udubaddawa, Kuliyapitiya, Kobaigane, Dummalasuriya, Deegalla, Madampe and several other adjacent areas maintaining small, medium and large scale poultry farms. In other areas of the country too there are a large number of farms which are involved in chicken production.

In Hettipola, Udubaddawa and Kobaigane alone there have been more than 300 farms with some millions of chicken as broilers and for eggs.
Hettipola being the main centre with the largest concentration of farms, an average of more than 20 vehicles converge daily to buy chicken and eggs where farmers and buyers meet.

However now the number of lorries coming to Hettipola has dwindled to just a trickle, and some days a mere one or two. In such a case the trucks are mobbed by large numbers of farmers rushing to sell their chicken and eggs at whatever price. One recent morning there were squabbles among farmers desperate to sell their produce when some producers offered chicken at Rs 70 per kilo and other urging the lorries to buy at Rs 50 to 60!

K. M. Gnanathilaka, Chairman, KMG Animal Feeds and KMG Eggs maintains a 100,000-bird farm with the present total investment of his chicken business at around Rs 100 million.

Every few weeks around 10,000 chicks are introduced into his farm, Gnanathilaka said, “The production cost per egg is Rs 4.80 and today we are unable to sell an egg at even Rs 3 to Rs 3.30. A few weeks ago we were selling at Rs 5.80 per egg. In our deep freezers nearly one million eggs are stocked unable to sell and each day the stocks are being added with 40,000 eggs.”

His mixing plant business has dropped by around 40 percent. “The adverse publicity has played havoc to the entire poultry industry in Sri Lanka. If this trend continues for another two months, large industrialists like us would also face a serious situation,” he said adding that they could face a bleak Sinhala and Hindu Avurudu.

There are a string of other suppliers who would also be affected, like rice bran, poonac, poultry utensils, implements, machinery, medicine and pesticide suppliers.

He said local production cost is very high as material like soya and maize are imported. Chicken industry suppliers have been requesting the government for the past four years to release some land to cultivate soya and maize but there has been no response.

If these ingredients are locally produced the cost of production could be reduced and the price per egg would come down.

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