Sri Lanka sees strong demand for compound feed

Evidence shows that poultry farmers in Sri Lanka are shifting from feeding home-mixed diets to purchasing compound feed.

Photo by Andrea Gantz
Photo by Andrea Gantz

Evidence shows that poultry farmers in Sri Lanka are shifting from feeding home-mixed diets to purchasing compound feed. This was one reason for a jump of 300 percent to LKR387 million (US$2.6 million) in the annual profit of poultry and feed milling firm Ceylon Grain Elevators, according to a report in Economy Next. Demand for poultry meat and eggs is also strong.

“Shortage of local raw materials compelled the farmers to move from self-mixing to compound feed and led to an increase in the demand for feed. The group continued to maintain its market share in all segments during the year 2015,” according to a statement from the company, which is part of Singapore-based Prima group.

Imported raw materials such as corn are subject to taxes, and the capped quantities are sometimes insufficient to meet demand for feed. The newspaper alleges this “nationalist ideology of self-sufficiency,” which includes government-set price controls, makes poultry meat and eggs unaffordable for low-income families and leads to wide fluctuations in supply and demand.

But these market conditions do not appear to be preventing new investment. Late in 2015, Daily News reported that leading poultry producers Pussalla Meat Producers had signed an agreement for a modern feed mill at Udamapitigama in the Gampaha district. It will be the first feed mill in the country to be built to international standards. Partners in the project costing LKR900 million (US$6.2 million) were Andritz feed milling and a Danish biofuels company.

“The mill capacity is 20 metric tons per hour and capable of producing 12,000 metric tons of feed per month,” Pussalla Meat Producers Managing Director Philip J. Wewita, told the newspaper.

When construction is complete, Pussalla will be the first totally integrated poultry producer in Sri Lanka, having grandparent farm, parent farms, commercial broiler farms, a processing plant, a further processing plant, an island-wide distributor network and a chain of shops. Its grandparent farm is the largest in the country and exports half its parent stock to other countries in South Asia. It also produces 25 percent of Sri Lanka’s day-old chicks.

Page 1 of 51
Next Page