Sri Lanka should focus on locally sourcing animal products: poultry association
ECONOMYNEXT – As Sri Lanka needs 40 million US dollars a month to import animal products, the country should focus on local production of substitutes to minimise the cost and secure a continuous supply, the All Island Poultry Association said.
Association President Ajith Gunasekera said on Saturday August 13 that with egg and chicken suppliers leaving the market due to lack of animal feed, Sri Lanka is facing issues in supplying eggs and chicken to the local market and the tourism sector which is expected to boom from the third quarter of 2022.
Before the contraction, the poultry industry was able to produce 216,000 MT of chicken and 26.5 billion MT of eggs a year.
However, with the fertilizer ban in 2021 resulting in a drop in crops, the production of maize, an essential raw material for animal feed, dropped.
With the forex issue emerging in March 2022 followed by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka (CBSL) floating the rupee, Sri Lanka put heavy restrictions on imports, resulting in the industry being unable to import animal feed, supplements and medicine. As a result, local production dropped significantly, resulting in a rapid increase in prices due to high demand.
Gunesekara said the industry is concerned about meeting a possible rise in demand in the coming weeks with more restaurants and hotels mainly in urban areas restarting their business with the anticipated increase in tourist arrivals.
“We are at the moment unable to meet the local demand. The demand for eggs and chicken for the tourism industry is extremely high. Restaurants will pay high prices for available stocks. Products will have to be supplied since tourism is an industry that needs to be sustained. Our issue is if that happens, how are we going to meet both local and tourist demand?” he said.
Gunasekara said that poultry product manufacturers have said if the government provided adequate animal feed substitutes sourced locally together with other imported inputs such as supplements, they could increase the number of chiks they maintain and will be able to provide chicken to the market within a period of 1.5- 2 months time. However since it takes time for chicks to mature and produce eggs, it would take a few months to increase the supply of eggs.
The sooner the government can get the animal feed and other inputs, the sooner they will be able to provide the necessary supply, he said.
Gunasekara said due to Sri Lanka’s ongoing forex shortage and following discussions with the Agriculture Ministry and Finance Ministry, there is renewed focus on producing raw materials for animal feed in the country. However, supplements and medicine still need to be imported.
“We need 40 million US dollars for that per month,” said Gunasekara.
“What we ask from the government is to facilitate us through private or state banks to import these as needed,” he said.
Meanwhile, international suppliers are willing to supply on credit basis, but the government has not permitted open account payments for the poultry industry, he said.
“The government has given the permission for open accounts for 10 essential food items. Even though we produce essential foods, we are not classified as essential food,” said Gunasekara.
He added due to the low production, three parent farms which produce chicks for poultry farms are at risk of closing down.
Gunasekera said closure of one of the parent farms can severely affect the poultry industry and with the forex issue and quality issues, chick could not be imported on an emergency basis to restart local production.
“If we can get permission to import, then we can encourage the SME sector again and continue the supply. We must protect the existing producers, because only a limited number of farmers willingly come to the poultry industry. If they leave the possibility of new farmer coming in is low,” he said. (Colombo/Aug13/2022)
