By Mercy Omoike
The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Lagos chapter, says plans are underway to set up poultry markets across the state, to cushion the rising cost of products.
The Lagos State Chaiŕman of the association, Mr Mojeed Iyiola, said this to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday in Lagos.
He stated that one major problem of the sector was the involvement of middlemen, who hiked the prices of the products incessantly.
According to him, this prompted the need for the association to set up poultry markets to sell at farm gate prices.
“As an association we are making attempts to break the monopoly of these middlemen in the sector.
“We want to set up poultry markets at each local government or LCDA across the state to sell our produce ourselves.
“We can supply directly to the final consumers at reasonable and affordable prices,’’ he said.
Iyiola said that the middlemen were the ones who created more problems within the poultry sector, adding that they even gained more than the farmers.
“Their profit margin is just too high, if you buy a crate for N2,300 at farm gates, at least selling at N2,500 is not too bad.
“But selling at N2,700 to N3,000 is exploitative of both the farmers and the consumers,” the chairman said.
Iyiola said that consultation was ongoing with the councils and LCDAs, to set up the markets across the state.
He said that the markets would be open at weekends to give access to everyone.
“We will establish the eggs/chicken markets separately at weekends, to reduce the plight of Nigerians and we will sell at farm gate price.
“We are in the process of negotiations with the various local government across the state to grant us a space to sell the produce at weekends.
“With this, we will be able to curtail the constant increase in the prices of poultry products by the middlemen.
“Aside the high cost of raw materials for poultry feed production, the greed of middlemen in the sector is a major problem we face in the sector,” Iyiola said. (NAN)
