18th JULY 2023 (HARYANA): According to the Poultry Association of Nigeria, many poultry farms across the nation are currently closing their doors as a result of the ongoing increase in the price of maize, a key feed ingredient in the industry. Based on this, PAN said that Nigeria’s poultry industry was doomed to failure if the government didn’t intervene to save it.
In a statement on Monday, the association said, “At the moment, the poultry industry in Nigeria is on the verge of total collapse if urgent intervention is not channelled to it without further delay.We are aware that the government has declared a state of emergency on the food security situation of the country, but the situation of the poultry industry calls for an urgent intervention to save the industry from total collapse.”
The statement, which was co-signed by PAN’s National President Sunday Ezeobiora and Director-General Onallo Akpa, claimed that farmers were forced to stop production due to an increase in the price of maize. It said, “The high surge in the price of maize and the near absence or scarcity of the product are causing farmers to close down their poultry farms at the moment because it is no longer sustainable to feed the birds and be in business. This is threatening the further development of the Nigerian poultry industry.”
According to data obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics, the price of one Agric medium-size egg rose to N89.17 as of May 2023 from N40.84 as of May 2020. This was as the importation of maize, a major component of poultry feeds, fell to $1.82 million as of the end of 2022 from $87.08 million as of the end of 2020, according to data from the International Trade Centre. Findings also revealed that the price of eggs, a daily protein source for many Nigerians, had soared by over 118.34 percent after maize importation fell by 97.91 percent.
The farmers said that maize is important in poultry feed, and the increase in the price of maize because of an import ban had translated to a rise in the price of eggs for the average Nigerian. The Federal Government imposed a prohibition on imports of maize into Nigeria in 2020 after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) added maize to its list of items that are restricted from accessing foreign exchange. While the ban on imports of maize has had a negative impact on domestic production, it has also been linked to the ongoing banditry prevalent in the north of the country.
As part of the CBN’s efforts to boost local production, promote a quick economic recovery, protect rural livelihoods, and increase the number of jobs that were lost due to COVID-19, in a circular signed in 2020 by the director of the trade and exchange department of the CBN (OS Nnaji), authorised dealers were directed to “cease the processing of forms for the purpose of importing maize or corn, with immediate effect”. The Federal Government subsequently granted concessions to the following companies (Premier Feeds, Mills Wacot, Chi Farms, and Crown Flour) to import a total of 262,000 tonnes of maize due to its importance to the poultry sector. Nigeria has a 400,000-tonne maize production deficit.
The increasing cost of feed for poultry has been a major factor in the rise in egg prices, according to an Atade Farms farmer who is also a veterinary doctor. The farmer reported that the cost of New Hope feeds for poultry has increased three times in the past two weeks, with maize accounting for approximately 60–70 percent of the total feed. This is due to the fact that maize imports have been restricted in recent years, and the majority of the maize used for human consumption is imported.
