Market Needed to Give Poultry Farmers Edge over Middle Men
NIGERIA – Nigerian poultry keepers are calling on the government to allocate market space to farmers to sell produce directly and avoid market ‘exploitation’.
9 July 2014
2 minute read
By: Punch Nigeria reports that the Umuahia branch of the Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN) wants a portion on the Umuahia Ultra Modern Market at Ubeni Ibeku to be given over for poultry farmers.
Uzomba Ekwuruibe, PAN chairman lamented the lack of direct trading for farmers, instead seeing them ‘at the mercy of traders’.
Mr Ekwuruibe said: “Poultry farmers in Abia State, for over a number of years now, have suffered because at the end of the day middlemen will buy off our products and sell at skyrocketing prices”
He described the far reaching effects of the plan, which would bring down feed price and leave consumers better off.
Explaining the mark up traders place on poultry, he said birds currently sold for N 2,500 which could be retailed by farmers for N 1,500 to 1,800.
