Eggs, Meat Become More Costly As Feed Prices Rise Sharply

Unabated inflation in poultry farm input costs caused prices of eggs and poultry meat to turn dearer when common households are already struggling with their kitchen budget.

The egg price has soared back to Rs 7 per piece after easing to about Rs 6 per unit recently. Broiler chicken prices too moved higher by Rs 20-25 per kg since last week, retailers in Kolkata markets said.  Vegetable prices also started to shoot up in the last few days due to rain, they said.

Edible oil prices had eased from their respective peaks recently but remained elevated by at least 40 per cent from the pre-pandemic levels.

"Chicken feed prices continue to rise higher. Our total cost jump is nearly 90 per cent. Feed and medicine prices are already up 80 per cent while fuel cost adds to about 8.5 per cent to our total cost. Egg price below Rs 7 a piece is unremunerative for farmers," West Bengal Poultry Federation Secretary Madan Mohan Maity said.

Anmol Feeds MD Amit Saraogi too said there had been a sharp elevation in feed price due to an unprecedented jump in the cost of oil cake and other feed-making inputs.

"I think the high feed cost is playing a key role in soaring prices of poultry products," he said.

Mr Maity denied that there were any supply constraints of eggs in the market.

Daily national production remains normal at 25-27 crore eggs per day.

Asked whether prices could rise further, Mr Maity said, the association was trying to ensure that retail prices do not move more than Rs 7 per piece to protect common people's interest.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)