Gombe poultry farmers count losses as buyers skip eggs

Poultry farmers in Gombe State are groaning over losses at their respective farms due to the ongoing naira scarcity experienced nationwide.

Speaking with Daily Trust at their farms, the owners lament that they have been operating at a loss since the naira scarcity began, saying buyers are not uptaking the eggs they are producing.

Mufeedah Farms is located in Kwadon town, about 20km from the Gombe metropolis. It has about 4,000 birds and produces over 100 crates of eggs daily.

A manager of the farm, Abdul Hamman, said they are now selling a crate of eggs at the rate of N1,500 as against N2,000 they were selling some weeks ago, before the naira notes scarcity.

Cash scarcity, insecurity may affect elections conduct – Interfaith Forum

I’m the envy of many presidents of the world – Buhari

He said despite crashing the price of eggs, they are still buying animal feed at the same rate of N7,000 and above to feed the birds, thereby almost operating at a loss.

“In fact, we are not even talking about making profit; our main concern is to sell the eggs, irrespective of whether we make a profit or not. We are left with hundreds of crates of eggs on our farms that get spoilt daily because there are no buyers.

“And what compounds our situation is that we have to keep feeding the over 4,000 birds we have at the farm daily, irrespective of whether we sell the eggs or not,” Hamman added.

On his part, the manager of Tuti Farms Limited, Dauda Mamman Muri, said he was feeding about 1,000 birds in his farm on a daily basis, although he was not selling the 30 crates of eggs they were producing daily.

 “My birds are producing 30 crates daily which we are selling at the rate of N2000 before this issue of naira scarcity. Now the price has crashed to about N1,500. And we have to keep feeding the birds despite not selling the eggs.

“Even when we were selling at N2000, the profit margin was very minimal. But now that we are selling at N1,500, we are operating at a loss. But the most disturbing issue is that we are not even selling the eggs,” he said.

Muri decried that at the rate things were going, if not changed quickly, it will send a lot of poultry owners out of business, thereby compounding job losses.

“It takes approximately 16 to 17 weeks before the birds start laying eggs. You can imagine how many tons of animal feed they would consume these weeks,” he further lamented.

Also speaking on the issue, the owner of AIT Integrated Farms, Abubakar Inuwa Tata, said what was being experienced in the egg market was an oversupply issue, as a result of the current naira scarcity.

He said the situation has significantly reduced the demand for eggs. “It is the informal sector of the economy that drives the market and they are not buying the eggs.”

He said households and the non-formal sector of the economy are the major consumers of eggs in the North, due to the small number of hotels in the region.

“Therefore, the market is mostly driven by the non-formal sector of the economy; mostly by the tea joints, school pupils and university students as well as girls who hawk boiled eggs on the streets.

Tata added that tea joints and young female hawkers, who are selling fried yam on the streets, no longer bought eggs because people don’t have the cash to patronise them with.

“Therefore, farms with 30,000, 20,000, 10,000 and even those with 5,000 birds respectively, are left with thousands of crates of eggs without buyers.

“Also, the non-availability of a company that will buy the eggs in large, commercial quantities, for instance, to make egg pudding for infant feeds and other products, has further crippled the market.

“At some farms, they produce over 3,000 eggs per day but they can’t sell them. And the life cycle of an egg is 43 days under normal room temperature. After that the eggs start to get spoiled, hence the farmers are left with no option than to crash the price to avoid much loss,” he explained.

Tata added that whenever there was oversupply, people had no option than to reduce the price to stay in the market. “We are now selling at N1,800 for the retail price as against N2,050 some weeks ago.”

He explained that every 20 days, the over 10,000 birds at his farm consumed a truckload of feed; which is 1,200 bags of animal feed. He said the truck cost over N8.8 million, adding that the birds produce eggs worth N16 million.

Tata explained that to cut the loss, he has reduced the production capacity of the birds at his farm, “thereby producing a smaller number of eggs per day.”

“The cashless policy has significantly affected the market. At a time, I had over N7 million worth of eggs on the farm with no buyers.”

He advised that both the new and old currencies should co-exist to reduce the hardships and prevent job losses.

“But I think the most important thing is for our people to get insurance for their farms to avoid risks. That is the only solution because the world has changed and people have to catch up.”

Daily Trust learnt that some farms have disposed of truckloads of eggs at a dump site because they have begun to get rotten in their respective farms. A situation generating worry as it would force many poultry farmers out of business.

A tea seller, Malam Shuaibu Lawal, said the naira scarcity has significantly reduced the demand for eggs, “because it is people like us in the informal sector that drive the market and we are not buying the eggs.”

He said customers now buy only tea and bread, because they don’t have the cash to afford noodles and eggs or fried eggs as they used to.

 “We are mostly patronised by the commercial motorcyclists, traders who hawk on the streets and others. But now people don’t have the cash to patronise us. So, we have to stop buying the eggs because we are not buying or collecting on credit,” Lawal said.