June 15, 2011 (LBO) - Sri Lanka's Bairaha poultry group is growing its own grain to ensure feed supplies the company said, as other poultry farmers complained of fresh threats to the industry from maize import controls.
Listed Bairaha Farms said it has a minority stake in Golden Grain (Pvt) Ltd, which is engaged in cultivating maize and paddy where returns are only expected in the long term.
"[B]ut in the short and medium terms this project is beneficial in enabling us to procure some raw materials required for feed production by our suppliers," Bairaha managing director Yakooth Naleem told shareholders in the annual report.
Sri Lanka has restricted the import of maize based on an autarkist ideology, leading to frequent disruptions of grain supplies and price spikes to the feed makers.
Sri Lankan autarkists have asked people to grow vegetables instead of flowers in their homes.
Due to loose US monetary policy, global grain prices are also now high.
Critics say Sri Lanka's food sector and maize in particular is suffering from the same old debacles of 'planning era' and 'license raj' type of activities.
The Island newspaper said poultry industry had complained that state calculations of the annual poultry feed requirement of 35,000 metric tonnes a month was wrong and the actual requirement was 40,000 tonnes.
The newspaper quoted D D Wanasinghe from the All Island Poultry Association representing poultry farmers as saying that the state has issued permits to some traders but not to feed millers.
Licensing prevents the existence of a free market making margins higher. The Island newspaper said there were allegations that some permits had been given to people with no knowledge of imports and there are attempts to sell the permits to feed millers.
Sri Lanka's chicken prices also fluctuate based on tourist arrivals and the prices of alternatives such as fish.
source - www.lbo.lk
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