The scarcity of Day-Old-Chicks (DOCs) throughout the nation has been blamed by poultry farmers for the recent increase in egg prices and shortages. In separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Lagos, the farmers and dealers revealed this.
According to NAN, there have been rumors that there would soon be a shortage of eggs, which would raise the cost of the produce.
A crate of eggs from the farm gate now costs N5,500, compared to N5,000 in January of this year. Depending on the size of the eggs, some sellers charge between N6,000 and N6,500 per crate, while supermarkets and large grocery stores charge between N7,000 and N8,500.
The main cause of the impending produce shortage, according to Mr. Mojeed Lyiola, chairman of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos State chapter, is the absence of DOCs.
“The major reason for the looming scarcity of eggs is that most old layers have been sold off and poultry farmers currently have no access to DOCs.
Presently, we cannot book for DOCs till December. Actually, all the hatcheries have been fully booked, even our national body has tried to intervene on this matter.
Initially, we were thinking that hatcheries were exporting their DOCs because of the hard currency they are collecting, but that’s not the case now.
When farmers go to the hatcheries to book for DOCs, aside from unavailability, every week, the prices go up,” lyiola said.
He claimed that the industry was progressively being crippled by the increase in DOC prices and their scarcity.
“From N1,800 last year, the price of a DOC has almost doubled to N3,300 and when farmers make their bookings, they are given a five to six months waiting period before delivery.
Then, the farmers will incur more costs to rear the DOC for another four or five months before they will start laying.
And not all of them will start laying at the same time. For them to get to the peak, it takes another three months to boost their egg production.
The reason for this scarcity of DOCs and subsequently eggs scarcity is because the government limited the licence for importation of parent stock.
We are currently engaging the government to give more licences for the importation of parent stock.
Even as an association, PAN is asking the Federal Government to give them the licence to import DOCs to cushion the scarcity,” lyiola said.
The national president of the Egg Sellers and Distributors Association of Nigeria, Mrs. Olaide Graham, confirmed the impending shortage of the item and the ensuing increase in price.
“There is actually a looming scarcity of eggs and a hike in price, but we cannot really blame farmers for this, this time round,” she said.
