Bird flu haunts farmers

Breeders yesterday said retail prices of poultry will go up further unless farmers now move to restart farming at an increased pace.

The warning came amid a slow recovery in the demand for poultry following the decline in bird flu spread.

But many farmers remain reluctant in resuming farming with bird flu still haunting them.

The recovery in demand has led to the rise in retail prices of broiler chickens over 10 percent to Tk 100 now from Tk 90 by the end of March. The price of one dozen eggs has also surged over 20 percent to Tk 65 from Tk 54 earlier, according to retailers in Karwan Bazar.

However, the breeders said the demand for day old chicks, meant for farming, remains stagnant as many farmers are still reluctant to restart farming after the bird flu took a heavy toll on the country's Tk 10,000 crore poultry industry.

A section of farmers are also in trouble in starting farming due to dearth of working capital, stakeholders said.

"The price of poultry will go up further unless farmers who had earlier stopped farming resume production," said Kazi Zahedul Hasan, managing director of country's biggest poultry breeder Kazi Farms.

"Some farmers are re-staring farming but not at the expected level," Hasan said adding that farmers now also need working capital to re-start.