Commercial poultry sector in Bangladesh started in 1995 and is a relatively new and emerging sector in the country. The annual average growth rate of poultry industry over past two decades has been more than 20 percent in volume terms, which shows huge scope in poultry industry. Currently there are about 100,000 small and large poultry farms in Bangladesh.
The growth and development of the sector is critical from the protein demand and supply situation in Bangladesh. The meat consumption including Poultry and Ruminant is about 4 kg per capita and fish consumption is more than 15kg per capita. There is a large demand and supply gap of protein in Bangladesh .
The country suffers from an acute shortage of livestock products like milk, meat and eggs. The shortage accounts for 85.9%, 88.1% and 70.7% for milk, meat and eggs, respectively. Table 1 shows the demand supply mismatch for meat and eggs very clearly.
With the increase in the price of beef, chicken is the only affordable meat available to the people. Current per capita egg consumption is about 35-38 eggs per annum.
The major players in the poultry industry are largely conglomerates, who are leading business players in the country. Global leaders in the poultry and Feed industry have also entered the Bangladesh poultry sector. These include CP Foods from Thailand and New Hope from China. To capitalize on economies of scale, most commercial poultry players have vertically integrated operations. All players are involved in hatchery operations, broiler and layer production, poultry processing and supply of feed and other inputs. Some players have also forward linked to retailing of processed meat items through supermarkets or setting up their own chains like the Kazi Kitchen Farms.
Apart from private sector players social enterprises like BRAC are also involved in poultry sector. Brief description of key players in poultry industry in Bangladesh:
The challenges posed to the poultry industry are:
- High fluctuation in poultry feed prices in country.
- High fluctuations in the price of DOC which ranged from 25-85 taka/doc
- Threat of epidemics like avian influenza which leads to huge economic losses to poultry farms.
- Lack of infrastructure for storage of feed ingredients and in terms of roads electricity etc.,
- Prevalence of wet markets like in the case of India which constrain the growth of the processed meat segment.
- Highly concentrated industry in hands of few conglomerates only.
- Unplanned growth of poultry farms around cities and no biosecurity guidelines is leading to various environmental hazards.
The policy framework for poultry development should have following points for developing poultry sector in Bangladesh:
- Promotion of young entrepreneurs in poultry sector by providing support in terms of some subsidy.
- Focus towards price stabilization of various inputs mainly poultry feed (Maize).
- Introduce some legal measures for the quality control/ quality checks of feed and poultry products.
- Development of environment friendly commercial farms.
- Major focus should be on preventive health measures (vaccination) against major diseses. Availability of vaccines in country should not be a constraint. Infact, the country should be well prepared to face any challenge of avian flue.
- Supporting the poultry industry by favourable policies like tax holidays to new players, reduced import duties on import of equipment and inputs, infrastructure support like electricity and roads.
- Organized meat market, including the processing facilities need to be promoted in country.
by Ankaj Sharma, Creative Agri Solutions
