“A majority of entrepreneurs will be forced to shut down their businesses unless the government provides subsidy for poultry feed ingredients,” said Moshiur Rahman, convener of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Co-Ordination Committee, comprising representatives from nine associations of the industry.

The prices of poultry feed ingredients such as maize, soybean have been rising in the international market on increased use of bio-fuel instead of fossil fuel.

Now we have to purchase a kg of maize and soybean at Tk 17 and Tk 33. In the months of June-July we procured those items by Tk 12 and Tk 18, Moshiur said.

Moshiur claimed that nearly half of the poultry farms faced closure in the last six months due to increasing cost of production, resulting from steady rise in feed ingredients and poor demand for poultry meat.