HYDERABAD: After a bad year, India’s poultry sector may be headed for good times. According to industry stakeholders, the sector is set to witness profits this year on the back of appreciation in prices of poultry products as well as a sharp drop in feed costs.
The sector was struggling last year, according to Errabelli Pradeep Rao, president of Telangana Poultry Federation. This resulted in farmers cutting down on production. As a ripple effect, egg prices started shooting up.
Also, feed cost has come down over the past six months. A combination of these factors has meant a rise in margins for the struggling sector.
“We are expecting this good run to continue even in the coming months, as demand has been encouraging,” said Rao.
He was speaking at a function to announce the Poultry India Expo to be held in Hyderabad from November 22 to 24.
According to him, it would take at least two or three months more for the egg prices to ease.
“The Indian poultry sector has the potential to give tough competition to major poultry-producing countries if the input costs are contained, which we are focusing on,” said Subba Raju, vice-chairman,
National Egg Coordination Committee.
According to him, rising incomes, emergence of integrated production systems, technological development, contract growing, and marketing activities have been the major planks for the transformation of the sector. Raju explained that India’s broiler production for 2017 is projected to increase by 7.5 per cent to 4.9 million tonnes. “Layers production for 2017 is expected to achieve 84 billion eggs target, up five per cent from 2016.”