DHAKA: The price of one-day old chicks of broiler variety, one of the main sources of protein for country’s people, has shot up defying government fixed rate.

Spot visit to different markets, banglanews24.com.bd correspondent found that the price of chicks was doubled on the price fixed by the government.

Market sources said the price of one-day old chicks was increased by over 400 percent in the last 18 months.

The government had fixed Tk 30 for the broiler chicks which are being sold between Tk 75 and Tk 85, National Council on Bangladesh Poultry Farm Protection (NCBPFP) secretary general Khandaker Mohammad Mohsin said.

The government in a meeting with stakeholders of the sector on July 11 this year had fixed Tk 30 for one-day old broiler chicks and Tk 32 for layer chicks.

But, the reality at retail and wholesale prices are completely the opposite. Retailers sell each chick at much higher rate than the wholesalers.

Mohsin told banglanews24.com.bd that the hatchery owners had attended the July meeting with the government but they never sold chicks at the prices fixed from the meeting.

Instead, Bangladesh Poultry Breeders’ Association, an organization of hatchery owners, filed a writ with the High Court on July 19 against the prices fixed in the meeting.

The High Court asked the Fisheries and Livestock Ministry to solve the issue by three months.

Mohsin said poultry farmers could not buy broiler chicks at the price fixed by the government.

NCBPFP President Abdul Barek Sarker told banglanews24.com.bd that the production cost of one-day old broiler chicks was not to be exceeded Tk 20 by any means as per the information given by the hatchery owners.

Sarker claimed that syndicated hatchery owners were raising the chicks’ price.

“One-day old chicks were sold at Tk 12 in the first week of January, 2009. As per that rate, price of chick increased by 400 percent,” he said.

BDST: 1350 HRS, AUG 16, 2010