Chitwan, July 18: Nearly 75 percent egg producing entrepreneurs have been displaced in Chitwan, a hub for eggs production in Nepal. They have to leave this business after continuous fall of eggs in the market. According to farmers, they have to sell eggs at much lower than cost price.
Some poultry farmers have to keep their business by adding more credit to the bank. According to Raghunath Bhatta, Chairman of the Poultry Business Forum, until two years ago there were more than 5,000 layer chicken farms in Nepal, but now this number is below 2,000. He said, “Those who have chickens left, they have survived by adding more than 40 percent debt.”
He says that the condition of most businessmen is miserable. “Now, the eggs price has increased and is nearing to the cost price. A few months ago, experts estimated the cost price of eggs to be Rs. 16.56 per egg. The current farm price is Rs 16.33 for a large egg and Rs 16 for a ‘medium’ size egg.”
Bhatta says that the price of eggs has come close to the cost price since last month, when the price of eggs was around Rs 16 per egg. Trilochan Kandel, the former president of the Nepal Egg Producers’ Association, says that many egg producers are unable to pay the bank loans.
According to Kandel, who is also the outgoing president of Chitwan Industry Association, 282,000 industrialists are on the bank’s blacklist. “Nearly 40 percent of them are poultry farmers and poultry traders.”
Rajendra Lamichhane, outgoing president of the Poultry Traders Forum, says that farmers have been displaced due to earthquake, blockade, covid epidemic, economic recession and other reasons. “It was difficult to bear the expenses when the interest of the bank was high in the previous years.”
He further says that the prices of raw materials and medicines have doubled, the wages of workers have increased, the rent of cages has increased, the prices of materials such as cartons and crates have increased, but the price of eggs has not increased for a long time, so the condition of farmers has become miserable. In Nepal, the number of farmers and farms raising more than 100,000 layer chickens among the egg producing farmers is 15.
Due to the increase in large farms, the demand has been met despite the displacement of small farmers. After the farmers started to migrate, layers poultry farmers formed the Nepal Layers Poultry Association.
Binod Pokharel, president of the association, said that most of the people who raise chickens have a large amount of bank loans. He informed that now there are 5 million layers of chickens and more than 2.5 million eggs are being produced daily. At times, the number of chickens used to be around 6 million. #nepal #egg
