The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) has attributed the current scarcity of eggs and rising costs of poultry produce to reduced productivity of the sector.
The Chairman of PAN in Lagos State, Mr Godwin Egbebe, disclosed this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Thursday.
Egbebe said that due to the harsh realities being faced in the sector, a lot of farms had been forced to close down which had resulted in low supply of the produce.
According to him, the scarcity of eggs and the rising cost of the produce is not far-fetched as many poultry farms have closed and many are about to fold up.
“The high cost of farm inputs and feed meal materials are very expensive due to a potpourri of issues in the agriculture sector.
“Crop farmers have always complained about insecurity issues which in turn resulted in increasing their costs of cultivation and these costs are also factored in the cost of raw materials we need to produce poultry feed.
“Now that demand is higher than supply because of the closing up of more poultry farms, we are not producing as much as we should,” Egbebe said.
The PAN chair also noted that egg glut (a situation of excess egg production) was now a thing of the past in the sector following the issues being faced.
“The scarcity of eggs and the subsequent increasing price cannot get better until things improve in the sector,” he said.
The cost of a crate of egg at the farm gate goes as high as N2,000 per crate and between N2,300 to N2,500 at retail price.
