By A Staff Reporter, Kathmandu, Feb. 18 : Poultry farmers Tuesday drew the attention of the government to reduce the hiked price of fowls and feeds at the earliest.

A group of poultry farmers demonstrated on the premises of the Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection drawing the attention of the government to reduce artificially hiked price of chicks and feeds.

According to coordinator of National Poultry Farmers’ Struggle Committee Bishnu Khadka, they were compelled to stage the demonstration outside the department after it did not do anything to take action against those who hiked the price of chicken fowls and feeds.

He said that the hatchery owners increased the price of a chick by Rs. 30 between January 25 and February 1. Due to the increase in price, farmers are facing a loss of Rs. 420 million a month.

Previously, the poultry entrepreneurs and hatcheries observed a chicken holiday for 10 days, limiting their supply to the market. They had destroyed six million chicks across the country from November 15 to December 24, 2019 and the hatcheries stopped producing chicks for 10 days. They defended their move stating that it was necessary to get the desired return from their investment.

He said that the price of a chick had hit Rs. 75-80 by the time it reached the farmers’ poultry firms at present while it was only Rs. 40-45 till January 24.

“The high cost of chicken fowls has affected the farmers to run their business. It is a must to reduce its price as it has also led to increased consumer price of chicken,” he said.

Khadka said that they urged the department to host a round table discussion among the representatives of hatchery and feed industries to address the problems faced by the poultry farmers.

After the demonstration, the farmers held talks with director general of the department Netra Prasad Subedi.

“We listened to the farmers and urged them to come with credible evidence regarding the price hike of chicks and feeds. We are tracing the reason behind the rise in price of chicks and chicken,” he told The Rising Nepal.

It might take some time to action against the wrongdoers, but the department is investigating into the reason in this regard, he said.

He said that the department would deploy a separate team to find evidence to take action against the black-marketers.

“We will discuss with the representatives of hatchery and feed industries to find out the reason behind hiking the price of their products,” he said.

Chairman of Nepal Hatchery Industries Association Tikaram Pokhrel said that they had not increase the price of chicks artificially.

“Hatchery industries are selling chicks in line with their production cost as price of a chick has reached at least 55,” he said.

The production of chicks is low as only 200 hatcheries out of 308 are now producing chicks, he said, adding that around 3 million chicks are being produced in a week.

He denied the allegation that the price of chicken had increased due to chicken holiday which was observed for 10 days and six million chicks destroyed across the country three months ago at the instruction of Hatchery Industries Association.