Daily Rs 1.50 crore goes out of State for eggs
STAFF REPORTER
GUWAHATI: The yawning production-demand gap of eggs in Assam makes the consumers here pay through their noses. Since the production of eggs is not enough to meet the huge demand in the State, egg is imported from other States. Had the State government taken measures to engage local youths in the production of eggs, job generation in the State would have got a boost, besides meeting the demand of eggs.
The daily import of eggs to the State is 30 to 32 lakh. This makes it clear that the employability is huge in the egg production sector in the State. However, these huge job avenues (producing 30-32 lakh more eggs daily) in the State are still untapped. Believe it or not, it's a fact that over Rs 1.50 crore goes out from the State daily to Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra from where egg is imported to the State. One can well guess as to how many people can be given employment opportunities here with over Rs 1.50 crore that is spent daily to import eggs to the State.
According to an integrated survey conducted by the State Animal Husbandry and Veterinary department, Assam produces just 47.50 crore eggs annually against the huge annual demand of 512.50 crore eggs.
The Department has schemes, including the 'National Livestock Mission', to produce and promote the production of eggs and poultry. Though the State has a number of demonstration poultry farms yet most of them are non-functional. Concerned circles feel that the 'non-functioning' demonstration poultry farms is one of the reasons as to why the State has not being able to tap its huge job avenues in the production of eggs locally. This apart, most of the poultry schemes have not been implemented properly.
The ground reality remains that the State, according to the Department, has only 20 private egg farms. They can hardly meet the huge demand of eggs in the State.
Egg is sold at Rs 14 per pair and Rs 185 per plate (containing 30 eggs) in Guwahati now. It was Rs 10 per pair and Rs 130 per plate till July 23, 2020.
According to sources in the wholesale market, it's the NECC (National Egg Coordination Committee) that fixes the price of egg in Andhra Pradesh. Likewise, it's BETA (Barwala Egg Traders' Association) that fixes the price of eggs daily in Haryana. Approximately 15 to 20 trucks of eggs come to Guwahati daily. Each truck has 1,288 cartons and each carton contains seven plates of eggs.