Poultry farm owners say prices of eggs and chicken will continue to rise during the festive season.
At present the price of an egg is in the range of Rs. 30-34 and they predict during the festive season it will increase to Rs. 40.
The price of a kilo of chicken is between Rs. 750 and Rs. 900 and the price of a kilo of chicken will exceed Rs. 1000, say the owners of the poultry farm.
They say the import of poultry food has stopped due to the dollar shortage, which has reduced egg and meat production by about 50%.
When inquired about this, the President of the All Ceylon Poultry Traders Association Ajith Gunasekara stated that the importation of soya, poonakku and maize for animal feed production has come to a complete standstill.
Mr. Gunasekera said that due to the shortage of dollars, letters of credit were not being issued by the banks and as a result many poultry farms had already been closed down.
