High feed prices drive poultry farmers out of business

THE skyrocketing chicken feed prices have become a thorn to poultry farmers, making others consider quitting the business as a way to protect their capital.

While the chicken feed prices are still rising sharply, the supply of chicken in the market has increased thus leading to price fall.

Some poultry farmers said in an interview with the Daily News that the increase in local breeding coupled with imported chicks has contributed largely to the rise in the supply of chicks in the market.

A broiler trader at the Shekilango market in Dar es Salaam, Mr Priscus Silayo popularly known as ‘Pepea’, said the business is faltering due to the entry of many chicks into the country. He said the market has fluctuated after the government allowed companies to import chicks.

“There are companies that have released too many chickens. Breeders are suffering with chickens since as you can see the price of broiler feeds has gone up to 87,000 per sack instead of 75,000/-in last month,” Silayo said Silayo said at shekilango market sold more than 20,000 chickens per day For the past two months, broilers were sold for 7,000/- to 8,000/- but currently, they are sold for 6,000/- 6,500/-.

The price has dropped due to many businesses of broilers where there are imported and local producers. Breeders are currently struggling to find markets despite spending a lot of money on raising chickens.

Speaking to Daily News at different periods, chicken traders said that the price has decreased due to the large number of chickens being produced in the market.

Statistics from the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries show that by December 2021 Tanzania had 92.8 million chickens while in 2020 they were 87.7.

On his part, Lameck Kimario broiler businessman said the business has dropped due to the importation as well as produced of too many chicks at the same time.

He said the markets in the Dar es Salaam Region are few and there were not as many chicken users as beef users.

“You may find that chicken is sold at a lower price than a kilogramme of beef but you can find that many families use beef,” Kimario said. Mr Kimario said that due to the lack of a market, breeders are struggling to find a market everywhere to avoid losses, while others are selling at a loss to reduce possible losses.

“For example, Interchick, AKM Glitters or Irvines Tanzania each company produces and releases 700,000 to 1,000,000 chicks per day obviously can all come out at the same time, so the market must be flooded. The more supply the lower demand,” said Kimario.

On his part, breeder Julius Stephen owns a farm at Mbezi Msumi, Dar es Salama said that at the moment the market has deteriorated unlike in previous months.

Mr Stephen said he still sold chickens at low prices which subjected him to huge losses especially when the costs of production were high.

“This time customers (brokers) are buying very selectively because there are many chickens in the market—the higher supply the lower the demand.

I expect at least if I sell for 6,500/- it will pay me but now as we go there is a tendency to get losses as well as loose capital,” he said.

Mr Stephen said, for example, a farmer with 1000 chickens eats one and a half to two bags of 50 kg each per day. If the broiler feeder buys 1000 chicks should have at least 5m/- to feed to them at the stage of starting selling.

“When chicks are small, uses one to one and a half bags but as they grow older, they use two bags which is about 200,000/- per day,” said Stephen adding that broiler feed has increased in price so chickens are supposed to come out on time to avoid losses.

“Sometimes we sell without profit to return the capital or at a loss so that we don’t continue to make losses because the longer they stay, the more the cost increases,” said Stephen adding sometimes it is a burden to us.

Mr Stephen said the operating costs are high because they have to use electricity since the chicks need heat, and there are sometimes they use charcoal and one bag of charcoal is sold between 60,000/- to 75,000/- “I planned to stop buying new chicks after finishing this intake for fear of losing my capital until I learn how to prepare myself chicken feed substituting soybeans with sardines.

Ulumbi Bryceson said, for example, if we buy a chick for 2100/-when the chicken grows up, it will be sold from 6,000 to 6,500/- for the wholesale price. She said that sometimes farmers suffer losses because broiler feed instead of falling in price is increasing while the price of chickens is falling.

“We used to buy chicks for between 1,600/- to 1,800/- but now we are buying for 2,000/- to 2,100/- depending on the company. If the situation continues like this, we will not be able to breed because even the price of food is high.

The living cost has gone up and this has caused everything to go up but chickens going down the economy is not good for people since they think eating chicken is a luxury.

Chicken feed per kilogramme is 2,300/- to 2,500/- while we used to buy 1,500 to 1,800/- per kilogramme,” said Bryceson.