Ismail Musa Ladu
22 July 2008
Consumers will have to dig deep into their pockets to have chicken and eggs on their menu as prices surge. The shortage of chicken feeds and the ever increasing food prices has forced poultry farmers to increase prices for poultry products.
In a meeting held on July 18 at Lugogo, the Poultry Association of Uganda (PAU) passed a resolution to increase prices of eggs and chicken.
Both a tray of eggs and a broiler now each cost Shs5,500 up from Shs4,500
PAU further warned that if maize and other grains continue to be scarce the price could hit Shs6,000.
Ms Immaculate Nabatte, the Sales and Marketing manager of Ugachick poultry breeders said: "We can not continue to operate if we do not increase our prices because we spend so much than we earn."
The General Manager of Ugachick Mr Flavio Oliveira said: "We shall be selling our product-broilers and a crate of eggs at 5500 or even 6000 if things do not improve."
Poultry farmers under PAU have asked the government to suspend export of food grains especially maize bran, wheat bran, rice bran and cakes from the oil industry to deal with the current shortage.
The plea comes after Tanzanian suspended export of foods stuff with the hope of controlling escalating food prices. Industry experts estimate that about 90 maize mills out of 120 exiting ones have closed due to scarcity of maize.
However, reports from the Uganda Commodity Exchange (UCE) show that new maize harvests, especially from Busoga region, could be underway in a few weeks.
"The quality is definitely not good. However, because of high demand for the commodity; the millers are buying whatever drops onto the market," the UCE report said.
Speculation of famine in neighbouring Kenya, low output due to changing weather patterns including floods last year however cast a dim picture on the future of chicken products.
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