With the egg prices hitting a record low, the Sarpang Layer Cooperative says they are running in loss for the past few weeks. According to the chairperson of the cooperative, the current selling price per egg is Nu 5.72 while its cost of production is Nu 6.
Earlier, the cooperative used to fetch Nu 7 to 8 per egg.
“We are running in a loss but most farmers do not understand this. If the situation does not improve, people will lose interest in poultry farming and ultimately close down their farms,” Nima Lama, the Chairperson of the Cooperative, said.
Also, with an increase in the supply of eggs in the market, the cooperative say they have been facing difficulties in selling their eggs.
They had to dispose of 13 cartoons of pullet eggs because these eggs have been lying at the collection centre for almost four weeks with no customers. Pullet eggs are from chickens who are laying eggs for the first time.
“The life span of such eggs is only three weeks,” Nima Lama said.
The drop in price for eggs, according to him, is due to the excess supply of Day Old Chicks (DOC) of layer by National Poultry Development Center in Sarpang leading to overproduction of eggs in the market, followed by competition by the state-owned enterprise.
“The poultry farms in Relangthang and Samrang belonging to Bhutan Livestock Development Corporation Limited produce around 600 cartoons of eggs in a week. The other reason is the increasing illegal imports of cheaper eggs from across the border in places such as Sarpang, Phuntsholing and Samdrup Jongkhar. We actually managed to catch a few miscreants in Phuentsholing,” he added.
To discuss these issues, a meeting was held among the Dzongkhag Administration and Poultry Farmers of Sarpang.
Following the meeting, the Dzongkhag Administration issued circular to relevant stakeholders to monitor the illegal entry of eggs from across the border. Henceforth all the poultry farmers have to avail origin of fresh eggs certificate from their livestock officials for selling their eggs.
Sarpang Layer Cooperative has 64 members. The dzongkhag has a total of 207 poultry farms, including 140 layer farms.
