Agriculture Minister Mahinda Amaraweera said that there will be no need to import eggs from next year.
Also, the price of eggs and poultry may come down from next year, the minister said.
The Minister of Agriculture, Mahinda Amaraweera, who commented further on that, also said:
“100% of the poultry and egg production needed by the country is done by the private sector. So far, the number of chicks in all farms has exceeded 3,420,000. Most of the time, those animals will lay eggs by the month of December. Therefore, the industrialists say that the production of eggs in this country will increase further after next December.
We also gave these industrialists the opportunity to import maize for the production of feed for the poultry industry. Our customers will also benefit from it in the future.
Before the covid epidemic and the economic crisis, the country’s annual production was 230,000 metric tons. Accordingly, per capita consumption of chicken meat is 11 kg per year. But due to the recent economic crisis and the impact of Covid, local chicken meat production dropped by 30%.
But due to the large number of broiler chickens added to the farms, the production of chicken meat in this country can be brought back to the pre-crisis levels by the end of this year, the industrialists say. Because of this, by the end of this year, it is believed that the price of chicken and eggs will further decrease.
The daily requirement of eggs in our country is 07 million eggs. After the covid pandemic and the economic crisis, the total egg production dropped by 50%.
The main reasons are the decline in animal feed production, lack of foreign exchange for animal feed imports, and decline in local maize production. But now, the production of chicken and eggs in the poultry industry is increasing. According to the review done last week, it has been possible to supply about 06 million eggs for the daily requirement.
Accordingly, the current daily shortage of eggs is around one million. But in the next 03 months, it will be possible to cover this deficit.”
