Poultry producers slash chicken price by Rs. 100

Poultry producers signed off on bringing down the price of chicken per kilogram by Rs. 100 yesterday (August 1) following a discussion held at the Ministry of Agriculture with the purpose of securing the local poultry industry whilst making chicken available at a minimum price.

Thus, the Minister has been informed by related business communities that the escalation of the price of chicken meat is because of the import levy of Rs. 75 charged per kilogram of imported maize, and made requests to take it down to Rs.25.

Accordingly, poultry farmers have acceded to slash the price of chicken per kilogram if the import tax on maize is reduced by Rs. 25.

The Minister of Agriculture Mahinda Amaraweera said that he would act on forwarding the related proposal to the President to ease the import tax on imported maize to Rs. 25.

Minister Amaraweera mentioned that the Government has equally called for procuring the country’s poultry industry.

Nevertheless, on July 31 the Minister of Trade, Commerce and Food Security Nalin Fernando noted that the President has given his go-ahead to import chicken on the side of commercial purposes.  

Minister Fernando emphasized that the Government has arrived at this decision after a certain discussion directed by the President concerning challenges confronted by the public at large owing to inflated prices of chicken available in the market as a result of monetary tightening.

However, in the course of discussion, a senior official stressed that if chicken meat was imported, the local poultry industry would meet a break-down.

The local poultry producers are making efforts to provide customer benefit when the SL Rupee appreciates against the US Dollar.