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Committee to determine chicken production cost

22 Apr 2021

  • Committee to determine chicken production cost

  The State Ministry of Livestock, Farm Promotion, and Dairy and Egg Related Industries has appointed a special technical committee to analyse and determine the production cost of chicken meat. A statement released by the State Ministry yesterday (21) noted that the said committee would be categorising the industry into small, medium, and large-scale categories, and respectively determining the cost for each. Accordingly, the costs for water, electricity, food, and medicine would be accounted for in ascertaining the exact cost of producing one kilogramme of broiler chicken. However, speaking to The Morning, the National Movement for Consumer Rights Protection Chairman Ranjith Withanage said that the issue did not lie in the production cost, but rather in the quality of the chicken produced. “The broiler chicken that used to be produced in 45 days is now being produced in 21 days. This means that the production cost has actually decreased now. The price went up recently because it is commonplace in Sri Lanka for the prices of goods to increase during the time of any special ‘season’. A long-term plan must however be there to combat that, and meanwhile, the quality of the meat must be monitored better,” said Withanage. Withanage also alleged that the prices of chicken are “distorted”. Last week, during the Sinhala and Tamil New Year season, the price of fresh chicken rose to Rs. 700 per kg. Since frozen chicken has a price ceiling of Rs. 430 per kg, imposed by the Consumer Affairs Authority, it was reported that there was a shortage of it last week. The aforementioned committee has been appointed by State Minister of Livestock, Farm Promotion, and Dairy and Egg Related Industries D.B. Herath, and is headed by State Ministry Secretary S. Senanayake. It is due to hand over its findings to State Minister of Co-operative Services, Marketing Development, and Consumer Protection Lasantha Alagiyawanna within the next two weeks.


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