The price of eggs has doubled from Nu 270 per tray to Nu 410 in the past two weeks due to a shortage of eggs in Gelegphu. Most of the shops don’t even have eggs for sale.
Pema Tshewang of the B-COOP shop, the sale agent in Gelegphu town for Sarpang Layer Cooperative said that the shop has been without eggs for a month after the Cooperative failed to supply eggs. “They stop supplying eggs for almost a month now saying there is no production. Normally I used to collect 100 cartons of eggs a week.”
Nima Lama, the Chairman of Sarpang Layer Cooperative, said that they could not supply eggs to the agent because they have limited stock due to a decline in egg production and cooperative members.
The Sarpang Layer Cooperative had 85 members when it started in 2014. However, frequent increase in poultry feeds and dying of birds due to poor poultry management has reduced the numbers to 27 today.
Nima Lama said that some members have started supplying eggs directly to brokers who are offering them a better price than the Cooperative. This he said is a violation of the Cooperative by-laws.
“We have by-laws but the members do not follow that properly. When I tried to implement they don’t understand. Local brokers are offering more money than us and this has led to the price of egg increasing to Nu.13.6 per egg in Gelegphu town,” he said.
Sangita Subba, a shopkeeper in Gelegphu, said that they are currently purchasing eggs from farmers at a rate of Nu.2500 per carton. “We sell at Nu 2600 per carton making a profit of Nu 100. It used to be cheaper from the Cooperative but it has stopped supplying eggs for almost three weeks now.”
The Cooperative pays members Nu.2050 for a carton of eggs.
Karma Wangdi
