Absence of parent birds result shortage of chicken, eggs: Poultry Assn.

There would be a considerable scarcity of eggs in the country as there is an acute shortage of parent birds in poultry farms, All Island Poultry Association (AIPA) President Ajith Gunasekara said.

He said there is a massive decline in the poultry industry and most of the farmers have given up their businesses.

Due to the increase in animal feed, the farmers are unable to buy them from the profit they gain by selling eggs.

Therefore, the poultry owners used to sell their existing parent birds for meat, Gunasekara said.

"The birds for breeding purposes are usually imported from other countries. But the importing too was annulled this year," he said.

He stated that the government used to import 80,000 parent birds each year, but brought in only 9,000 this year.

Therefore, there would be a huge shortage of chicken in the country and if this situation continues, the prevailing shortage of eggs and chicken would then become inevitable, Gunasekara added. (Chaturanga Samarawickrama)