Daily egg production drops to 3.5 m from 8 m
Sri Lanka’s daily production of eggs has drastically dropped to 3.5 million from eight million, All-Island Poultry Farmers’ Association Chairman, Ajith Gunasekara revealed adding that “prices have also gone up to Rs.55 at present from Rs.20 in March this year due to shortage of feed and other inputs”.
National Animal Farmers’ Union Convener, Sujeewa Dhammika noted that it was impossible even to sell an egg at Rs.55 as the cost of feed has gone up to a very high level and the industry is on the verge of collapse.
Sri Lanka’s animal husbandry and livestock industry is currently facing a man-made crisis as it was not given any attention by the relevant state institutions during the past two years mainly owing to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, industry sources complained.
It has been observed that a sum of Rs.200 million allocated from the interim budget for livestock and animal husbandry development has not been utilised for any such activity and the money has now been transferred to the Treasury.
Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that he has questioned the relevant animal husbandry development officials on this matter and their reply was that they have not received any project proposal from provincial councils.
The whole industry has been ignored and pushed into an abyss as a result of official bungling and the shifting of focus to factory farms capable of generating domestic revenue, several leaders of associations representing the industry disclosed.
The Ministry of Livestock has been abolished, with the sector now coming under the purview of the Ministry of Agriculture.
At a time where the prices of eggs and chicken meat were skyrocketing with the drop in production, the failure to use this massive amount of money even to improve the industry was unacceptable, the Minister adding that when he asked why the officials had not taken any action they kept mum.
The livestock industry including chicken and egg production is now faced with issues such as poor pay and allowances of officials attached to relevant state agencies, dearth of veterinarians, fuel, medicines, vitamins and a lack of a national policy to promote the industry.
All meat, milk, and egg consumption has increased significantly with its prices soaring causing the sector to expand but it has not materialised as livestock is not classified under essential commodities, Agriculture Ministry sources said.
According to Ministry statistics in 2021, 80,000 parent animals were imported to Sri Lanka to breed chickens but in 2022, the import of parent animals to Sri Lanka has been reduced to 7000. This was due to a scarcity of foreign exchange and the suspension of parent animal exports by countries such as India.
The annual production of eggs was between 1000-3000 million and it was dropped to 2934 million in 2021 and 1963 million so far this year.
However the per capita consumption of eggs in this country is expected to increase to 125 by the end of this year from 35, 10 years ago. During the Christmas and New Year season, Sri Lankans, on average, consume about 200 million eggs, official data shows.
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