Egypt’s poultry farmers are unable to retrieve sufficient stocks of soybean and yellow corn to use as feed and ands many as 400,000 chicks are being culled daily.

Over 200,000 tons of raw materials are required by the local feed industry per week, worth around $75 million, in order for prices to begin inching back to normal, said the other union source speaking on condition of anonymity. Only $40 million worth of releases were agreed upon by the government, the central bank and the union.

Feed manufacturing materials have been in short supply for weeks, leading to a decline in daily production that means supplying agents are now rejecting new purchase orders.

The lack of feed and high production costs have disrupted the work of most hatcheries in Egypt, which normally produce over two million chicks per day. The market is currently operating at less than 40 percent of its daily capacity.

Many hatcheries have taken to selling off the hens bred for hatching chicks as regular poultry hens for eating at low prices, in order to avoid losses and manage margins.

Dollar scarcity convulsing the domestic economy, sending costs up for poultry farmers and pricing their products out of the market. The government is shipping in cheaper frozen chickens from abroad.

The industry has announced the opening of a new tender to import 12,000 tonnes of frozen chicken from Brazil, scheduled for October 19th.

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Source: Madamasr