By Mercy Omoike
Lagos – A Poultry Farmer, Mr Joel Oduware, has called on operators of poultry industry to improve and intensify egg powder production in the country to address seasonal egg glut plaguing the industry.
Oduware, a member of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos Chapter, made the call in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Friday.
NAN reports that egg glut is a season when there are too many eggs in the market and not enough demand for them.
Egg glut can create a lot of waste, especially if those eggs cannot be adequately processed for alternative uses such as egg powder.
Oduware noted that farmers produced more eggs than could be consumed in Nigeria, hence the seasonal egg glut experienced in the country’s poultry industry.
“In Nigeria, eggs are always available but the problem we face as poultry farmers is the season egg glut we experience yearly.
“In Africa, we are one of the major egg producers. We are producing more eggs than we can consume in Nigeria.
“The permanent solution to this seasonal egg glut problem is that we need to start producing egg powder locally.
“It is time local poultry farmers start processing and producing egg powder for industrial purposes like beverage companies, confectioneries and even breweries.
“Currently the Poultry Association of Nigeria is working on modalities to start the production and processing of egg powder,’’ Oduware said.
According to him, instead of importing egg powder, we can locally produce it to solve the problems of egg glut that poultry farmers experience.
The farmer also called on the Federal Government to ban the importation of egg powder and introduce the one-egg-a-day policy in the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme.
“We also want the government to ban importers of foreign egg powder into the country to boost the chances of local production.
“With egg powder production, we can have stability in egg production and also be able to wipe out egg glut in the Nigerian poultry industry.
“Egg glut usually occurs when children are on holidays. There is less consumption of eggs in the period; making the farmer to sell at any price.
“We also appeal to the Federal Government to implement the one-egg-a-day policy in its National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme to address the issue of egg glut.
“When implemented, it will also go a long way to alleviate the seasonal problem of egg glut that local poultry farmers face,” Oduware said.
(NAN)