Farms in bird flu peril
The country's poultry industry continues to be in grave peril with sales already halved due to panic among consumers in the wake of recent bird flu outbreaks, operators said. Many restaurants have already taken chicken off their menus while home consumption too has slumped. "We are going broke. We are selling chicks to poultry farmers at a token price to minimise our losses,' said Shah Habibul Haque, director of Aftab Bahumukhi Farm Ltd, a leading poultry hatchery. He claims their business has incurred on average a loss of Tk 2 crore every month since November last year. "Things look even grimmer for small farm owners. They are losing their capital,' he said adding that currently they charge only Tk 7-8 for a day-old chick, about one third of production cost at Tk 22. The avian influenza, which broke out in Bangladesh early last year, has now reached epidemic proportions sweeping across the poultry industry that accounts for over 1.6 percent of GDP. According to official data, the government has detected bird flu virus in 152 farms in 43 districts and culled 6.42 lakh fowls as of February 16. Operators report a loss of nearly Tk 5,000 crore because of plummeting sales coupled with a steady rise in the prices of poultry feeds. "At a rough estimate, we have made a loss of nearly Tk 5,000 crore,' said Moshiur Rahman, convener of Poultry Industries Co-ordination Committee. Industry sources said thousands of farms have been forced to shut down in a year due to bird flu outbreaks and hike in prices of feed ingredients. Around half a crore people are directly or indirectly employed in the industry involving 1.5 lakh farms. "Our sales have dropped drastically,' said Delwar Hossain, owner of Janata Poultry at the Kaptan Bazar, one of the biggest wholesale-cum-retail markets for poultry products in the capital. He said daily sales in his wholesale store hovered around Tk 1.50 lakh in January. "Now I struggle to have sales of Tk 25,000 a day,' he said. Khokon Mia, a retailer at Kaptan Bazar, said the sales at his shop have dropped 58 percent on point to point basis. In retail outlets, chickens sell at Tk 65-70 a kg, whereas only a month ago they would cost Tk 80-85 a kg. "I sold Tk 67,300 worth of poultry on January 16, but in a month, it dropped to Tk 28,000. We are going through a terrible time. People have incredibly cut down on their poultry intake,' said Khokon who also supplies live chickens and eggs to a number of city restaurants. Restaurants and party centres are having their share of troubles with chicken consumption taking a nosedive. "The consumption has fallen by around 50 percent amid bird flu scare,' said Ali Akbar Badal, general manager of XINXIAN, a Chinese restaurant at Kalabagan. Star Kabab's Karwan Bazar branch Manager Mohammad Shahin said their restaurant too has seen a sharp drop in consumption of chickens and eggs. "It's a serious crisis as the plunging demand for poultry pushes the farmers and hatcheries to huge losses,' said head of Brac Poultry MA Saleque, who believes overall consumption has been slashed by half.