by SURESH PERERA

The price of eggs has shot up to an all-time high of between 24 and 25 rupees each in the local market due to what an industry player described as the “fallout of the Covid-19 pandemic, which virtually devastated the trade”.

Thousands of birds had to be culled as the demand for both chicken and eggs plummeted with sales points closed and the distribution network largely disrupted during the lockdown, he said.

Wherever it was possible to dispose of stocks on a limited scale through private traders operating mobile units with police permission at the time, chicken was sold by farms far below Rs. 200 per kilogram and eggs at Rs. 3 each, the official said.

With hotels, restaurants and eateries also closed, suppliers who procured big stocks for distribution also kept away resulting in unsold quantities piling up, he recounted. “With limited storage facilities, the industry was tottering”.

Even immediately after the worst was over and Covid-19 related restrictions were eased, the demand for chicken and eggs didn’t pick up as the buying power of the people had diminished with the drop in personal incomes, he explained.

Fallout

The situation has now boiled down to inadequate layer birds to produce enough eggs to go around, the official explained.

A wholesale trader in Colombo said eggs are being sold at between Rs. 21/50 and Rs. 22/50 each, an unprecedented increase in relation to pre-Covid-19 times.

“That’s why retail prices have jumped to between Rs. 24 and 25”, he noted, while predicting that the upward trend is bound to continue until supplies normalize.

The high price of fish and seafood has also contributed towards the demand for eggs, he further said.

Some supermarkets are also offering substantial discounts on whole dressed chicken as they want to dispose of existing stocks.

“We don’t want to keep the birds in cold rooms for too long as sales are not as good as they used to be”, an official said.

There is a demand for eggs but many customers avoid buying broiler chicken claiming that “the use of steroids have turned the birds into tasteless lumps”.

That’s a misconception, the manager of a farm countered. “The use of hormones and steroids in poultry is banned under the law”.

He said that under modern breeding techniques, vitamins are added to the poultry feed, 60% of which contains maize, and the birds are slaughtered within 40 to 45 days according to the required weight.

“If we are to inject costly hormones, we will have to sell a kilogram of chicken for Rs. 1,500 to make a profit”, he asserted.