Madurai: Poultry farmers to protest against low rearing charges

MADURAI

: Poultry farmers in the district have decided to go on strike from October 28 demanding firms to hike rearing charges of

chicks

to at least Rs 15 per kg. They said that they will only accept and supply chicks from the

companies

till their demand is met.

Madurai District

Broiler Poultry Farmers Association president M S Arun Prasath said that major companies like Suguna and Sakthi which supply them with the chicks were not adequately compensating them for rearing the chicks. “When the chicks are given to us, we rear them for a period of 40 to 45 days and give them back to the companies with each

bird

weighing an average of 2 to 2.5 kg. But what they have been paying us as growing charges (GC) for a kilogram is just Rs 4 which was further reduced to Rs 2.5 during the Covid crisis, when the actual cost of rearing goes up to about Rs 11 per kg,” he said. Rs 4 has been the GC since 2010.

Prasath said that a bag of coal which was priced at Rs 400 before the

lockdown

now costs Rs 1,600.

Coconut coir

which earlier cost Rs 4,000 per

tractor

load costs Rs 12,000 now. “We invest about Rs 5 lakh on a 5,000 sqft shed and with the meagre GC we do not get anything in return,’’ he said.

Arun Prasath said that a revised GC rate will not impact the market price of

chicken

, as the companies were making a profit of over 30%. If they increase the GC, the companies stand to lose nothing.