By Mercy Omoike
Lagos – The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos Branch, has predicted a drop in the prices of local poultry produce in the next six months, in spite of continued Nigeria’s land border closure.
The Secretary-General of the association, Mr Oluwafemi Stevens, made the prediction on Friday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
According to Stevens, reopening of more poultry farms by farmers following the border closure will soon force down prices of local poultry produce.
“The land border closure is of great benefit to the Nigerian poultry industry.
“The problem we had as an industry was that the government was not helping us as much as we want to subsidise prices of the raw materials for poultry feeds, but now, following the land border closure to foreign poultry produce, we are enjoying a huge market for poultry produce.
“Despite the fact that the prices of locally-processed poultry are still relatively high, I am assuring you that, by the middle of this year, the prices of poultry produce will come down.
“The reason for this anticipated reduction in price local poultry produce is that many local farmers have started returning to their poultry farms,” Stevens told NAN.
He said that the border closure was favourable to poultry industry.
“We have been suffering from government policies for a very long time, policies that have not been favourable to us as an industry. It is our turn now to smile.
“For the past 20 years, policies concerning the poultry industry have not been to our benefit because our locally-processed poultry produce was competing with smuggled ones.
“Prior to the border closure, irrespective of the quality of our locally-processed poultry produce, Nigerians preferred to buy smuggled ones because they believed it was cheaper.
“I did not have enough stock in my farm but today, I am doing well in terms of having a large stock any time.
“I am assuring you that our poultry produce will become more affordable, and consumers will start laughing with farmers.
“Banks are now laughing with us, courting us to come and take loans to expand the scale of our farms for better yields.
“When we did not have a ready market for our produce, we did not have access to funds or loans from anywhere, but now the story has changed,” Stevens said.
(NAN)
