Ricky Thaper - Treasurer, Poultry Federation of India reacts to recent development on import of SOYAMEAL

Says Ricky Thaper "When the animal feed prices rose sharply because of huge spike in soybean meal prices, all the trade bodies associated with poultry, fisheries and dairying industries met up with the key officials and Ministers of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Fisheries, Finance, Commerce & Industry, Agriculture, Consumer Affairs and Environment, Forest & Climate change, for ensuring imports of soybean meal so that domestic prices are curbed. The officials with the key ministries and ministers responded swiftly to the request to save livestock farmers and the industry".

He further said as per Mr. Gulrez Alam, Secretary, All-India Poultry Breeder Association (AIPBA), this wide discrepancies in the production estimate of soybean by the Government as well as SOPA has led to the current crisis of supply of soybean meal. This has pushed up the cost of production for poultry, fish, shrimp, cattle and dairy farmers hugely leading to rise in prices.

According to Industry data, the annual requirement of soybean animal feeding is 72.5Lakh ton which includes 60 Lakh MT for poultry industry.