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Corporates, poultry giants expand
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Corporates were filling the void left behind, he added.
“In the last decade and a half, the use of modern machinery has increased in the poultry sector. That increased production, but the number of unemployed people also increased,” he said.
“The way corporates are delivering products to consumers, there will be a time when there will be no one in the supply chain between the producer and consumer. There will only be retailers,” Mohsin added.
A layer chicken farmer from Sreepur upazila in Gazipur said that local brokers of big wholesalers collected eggs from him. But as costs of production increased and profit margins fell over the past two years, he has scaled down production.
Amanat Ullah, president of the Tejgaon Egg Merchants Association, an association of wholesalers in Dhaka, said a portion of their customers had switched to packaged eggs, negatively impacting their business.
Amanat said wholesalers in Tejgaon used to buy and sell about 3 lakh eggs daily a decade ago. That number has now been reduced to around 80,000 eggs per day, he said, adding that the number of egg traders dipped from 120 about two decades ago to around two dozen at present.
“They have not been able to keep up with the way corporate companies produce eggs and manage supply chains in a well-structured way. That’s why they have lost a part of the market,” he said.
Pran-RFL’s Kamal said claims made by marginal farmers were incorrect.
“The acceptance of corporate companies is increasing day-by-day due to their ability to provide products to customers according to demand,” he said, adding that it was not possible for marginal farmers to deliver products to customers through organised supply chains like large firms.
As a result, profit margins for farmers have decreased and many are unable to survive competition, he added.
Fakhrul Islam, chairman of Rahmania Organic Agro, informed that they ventured into this sector around 2011 and had also increased investment. Currently, his brand sells about 4,000 boxes of organic eggs every day across the country. It was around 2,000-2,500 boxes in 2011.
He said that buyers were unaware of when loose eggs were produced and how long they would last. But in the case of packaged organic eggs, the information is mentioned on the box.
WHAT DO ANALYSTS SAY?
Anwarul Haque Beg, professor and chairman of the department of poultry science at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, said it is good news that corporate companies were investing more in the egg market.
However, he was alarmed by the number of small farmers decreasing day by day.
He opined that the government should frame a policy for contract farming because some corporations were preying on the poverty of farmers.
Otherwise, after some time, there will be no balance in the market, Beg added.
Khondaker Golam Moazzem, research director of the Centre for Policy Dialogue, said a major reform was needed in terms of market management.
Apart from looking into the supply chain, he believes that reforms could lead to a deeper understanding of why prices of commodities such as eggs often fluctuate.
“Unfortunately, there is no competitive structure in the supply chain in Bangladesh. If there are a large number of producers in the supply chain, there will be competition in the market,” Moazzem added.
He also said big poultry firms were engaged in almost every stage of the poultry value chain, from layer farming and feed production to the retail stage.
As such, they could play a role in controlling the market, he added, stressing the need to recognise dominant players in the market and monitor their activities regularly.
“In the current overall situation, it is time to set a ceiling for sector-wise investment to allow new investors and ensure competition,” Moazzem said.

Islami Bank sees record trade
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A foreign investor is selling shares and a local corporate is taking the stake, the official added.
Recently, Saudi investor Arabsas Travel & Tourist Agency has withdrawn its directorship from the board of Islami Bank Bangladesh PLC.
However, the Saudi investor did not disclose any intention to sell-off its stake.
Sources at the CSE said that Arabsas, which owned 16.09 crore shares of Islami Bank, sold its holdings.
The bank’s share trading brought a record for the CSE’s turnover as it crossed Tk 533 crore yesterday and its highest ever turnover record was Tk 530 crore on June 21 of 2023, the CSE data showed.
Previously in last June, state-run non-bank financial institution Investment Corporation of Bangladesh (ICB) sold its entire shareholdings in Islami Bank.
ICB held more than 32 lakh shares—which accounted for 2.07 percent of the total shares—worth approximately Tk 109 crore.