Officials of the All Ceylon Poultry Product Manufacturers’ Association (ACPPMA) say that it is more profitable to use the money that the Government is spending to import eggs to develop the local poultry industry.
ACPPMA, President Ajith Gunasekara told Sunday Observer Business that Sri Lanka is spending a colossal sum of foreign exchange to import eggs from India, but it will be more productive if this money which runs into several millions of dollars could be given as short or long-term loans to the local poultry sector to open new poultry farms.
He asked why the Agriculture Ministry and Local Government authorities cannot get together and start poultry farms especially with unemployed youth in rural areas when the country has adequate resources including land, water and also the most needed climatic conditions.
He said the price of chicken which is between Rs. 950 and Rs. 1,100 a kilo in the open market could be reduced if officials take immediate measures to develop the local poultry industry.
“Then the price of eggs and chicken could be drastically reduced even during the forthcoming New Year season,“ he said.
He said it was nice to see that unlike earlier many people have started poultry farms even in their home gardens and the Government should encourage them by granting loans at low interest as it is more profitable than importing eggs.
The ACPPMA said that there are over 300,000 large, medium and small poultry farms in the country and nearly 200,000 people depend on them for their livelihood.
Trade Minister Nalin Perera said poultry food and medicine are available at reasonable prices in the market and egg imports could be completely stopped with the resumption of more local poultry farms in the coming months.
