Poultry breeders face losses in Arakan State as animal feed price rises

By DMG 11 Oct 2021

DMG Newsroom
11 October 2021, Sittwe

Poultry breeders in Arakan State say they are facing losses because the price of animal feed is rising but eggs are not fetching a good price.

A bag of animal feed before the February 1 military coup was about K13,000, but has risen to K20,000, according to Daw Oo Khin Than, a poultry breeder from Kyay Taw Ywarma village in Sittwe Township.

“We cannot get a profit now because the price of animal feed is rising. We have to buy chicks from Yangon. They lay eggs after four months,” she told DMG.

An egg sold at K120 in the past but was just over K90 at present due to the entry of eggs from other regions and states, said poultry breeders in Sittwe Township.

The monthly cost of raising 500 chickens was about K700,000 previously, but has increased to about K1 million as a result of the price hike for animal feed, said U Maung San Lin, a poultry breeder in Sittwe Township.

“It cost about K4 million over four months now, but I cannot get back that money after I sold them. If the situation keeps going this way, we will face difficulty to keep operating the business,” he told DMG.

A chicken sold for more than K7,000 in the past, but it fetches about K5,000 now and there are not many buyers, poultry breeders said.

U Kyaw Than, a fellow poultry breeder, said he raised about 2,000 chickens last year but is raising approximately 1,000 chickens this year because of the spike in the price of animal feed and other commodities.

U Moe Chay, an animal feed distributor in the Arakan State capital Sittwe, said the price of animal feed is increasing following a depreciation of the Myanmar kyat against the US dollar.

Some poultry breeders have had to suspend their business operations due to the animal feed price rise.