The Namakkal-based zonal committee of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), which pruned its weekly price by ten paise last week, further reduced the price by another ten paise to Rs 2.45 a piece on Thursday.

The Hindu Business Line reports that the slowdown is caused by a confluence of factors – lower offtake on the export front, a dip in domestic consumption on account of the austere ‘Aadi' month and the onset of monsoon in the neighbouring Kerala, a major market for Tamil Nadu's shell egg and broiler trade.

Mr R. Nallathambi, President, Tamil Nadu Poultry Farmers Association, said that the Gulf countries are still wary of importing eggs from India although the Union Government has declared the country is free of avian influenza.

“Last year, during July we shipped around 300 containers, but so far this year just 77 have been shipped. Slack demand on the export front coupled with a slowdown in domestic consumption has led to a decrease in prices of poultry products.”

Poultry industry sources told Business Line that with egg shipment from the region keeping a low pace, traders were not opting to build up stocks and hence favoured lowering the price.

Similarly, Broiler Coordination Committee has lowered live chicken prices this week. The wholesale price has decreased to Rs 47 a kg from the Rs 51-53 price band a week ago.

The price cuts come after a bullish trend the producers experienced since the start of the year as there was a cut in production by 10-15 per cent the previous year.