The COVID pandemic has severely affected numerous economic sectors across the world, including livestock production. This study investigates how the pandemic has impacted the poultry production and distribution network PDNanalyses stakeholders' changing circumstances, and provides recommendations for rapid and long-term resilience. These included key informants from breeder farms and hatcheries, pharmaceutical suppliers, feed companies, dealers, farmers, middlemen, and vendors. We show that the poultry sector was damaged by the COVID pandemic, partly as a result of the lockdown and also by rumors that poultry and their products could transmit the disease.
This research shows that hardly any stakeholder escaped hardship. Disrupted production and transportation, declining consumer demand and volatile markets brought huge financial difficulties, even leading to the permanent closure of many farms. We show that the extent of the damage experienced during the first months of COVID was a consequence of how interconnected stakeholders and businesses are across the poultry sector.
For example, a shift in consumer demand in live bird markets has ripple effects that impact the price of goods and puts pressure on traders, middlemen, farmers, and input suppliers alike.
We show how this interconnectedness across all levels of the poultry industry in Bangladesh makes it fragile and that this fragility is not a consequence of COVID but has been revealed by it.
This warrants long-term consideration beyond the immediate concerns surrounding the COVID pandemic. In addition to its impact on public health, COVID has affected social and economic life in many ways.
Areas impacted include the livestock production sector, at global, regional and national levels Marchant-Forde and Boyle, Governmental actions, taken in attempts microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free control the pandemic, microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free included national lockdowns, travel restrictions, border closures and controls. These have resulted in some inevitable negative consequences.
With regard to the livestock sector, these have included: i local and international movements of live animals and animal products; ii supplies microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free raw materials for feed and medicine; iii provision of other production inputs and equipment; iv access to labor and professional services Food Agriculture Organization, a.
In many countries, the closure of schools, restaurants, shops and markets, limitations on public gatherings and travel have reduced demand for animal products InEuropa, ; Marchant-Forde and Boyle, Infections among workers and subsequent closure of slaughterhouses and food processing plant has reduced slaughtering and processing throughput Good, These factors resulted in the overstocking or culling of animals and animal products Huffstutter,with farmers depopulating their farms to reduce the costs of maintaining animal populations which they could neither feed nor trade Barrett, Inevitably, this affected poultry production and trade Mulder, The impact on the Bangladesh poultry sector was devastating.
Poultry production is the main livestock sector in Bangladesh, providing an important component of food security and contributing to the country's economic development more generally. Over 8. The avian influenza outbreak of had catastrophic repercussions for the sector, shutting down more than half of the country's poultry farms and hatcheries, and the emergence of this disease continues to afflict poultry farmers Gupta et al.
Recurring outbreaks of other diseases in flocks have hampered overall production, leaving some farmers in precarious financial positions Hamid et al. There microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free also microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free challenges shaping the sector. Risks associated with the market, such as value chain fragmentation, high intermediation costs, and no or lack of traceability, all impede the distribution of poultry and poultry products MoFood-Ministry of Food, The unregulated and fluctuating cost of certain critical farm inputs, including day-old chick DOC and feed, and uncertain market price of finished live poultry have also become a major worry for stakeholders.
The strategies of feed manufacturing, promotion, and distribution differ amongst companies and hence they set prices unilaterally and are not subject to government regulation often Hamid et al.
Fluctuating prices are also a concern. Changes in supply and demand cause chicken and egg prices to change regularly, sometimes beyond the reach of many consumers, and sometimes so severely that farmers suffer financially.
Moreover, the insufficient coordination between the country's public-private and research institutions and inadequate government oversight of the poultry sector is hampering the development of this sector Hamid et al. Despite these challenges, COVID still presented a new and extreme challenge to the sector both introducing new problems and exacerbating some of these existing ones.
During this period, the government ordered closure of all businesses and institutions other than hospitals, kitchen microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free kachar bazar 1pharmacies, and other emergency and health-related services World Health Organization, b.
This study assesses the impacts of the first four months of the COVID pandemic, and in particular the national lockdown, on the production, trade and marketing of chickens and eggs in Bangladesh. Here we first compare variations in the prices of different chicken commodities across the study period. We then explore the way in which the pandemic has affected the activities of different poultry production microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free.
At an early stage of the COVID epidemic in Bangladesh, we conducted a review of news articles published in mainstream print and electronic media. We compiled an analytical account of the diverse impacts of COVID on the poultry sector in the country. They were contacted through email and telephone in the last week of March Informed consent was requested prior to interviews; none of those approached refused to participate.
Three groups of informants were identified. Group-1 consisted of managers or senior employees of six poultry breeder and hatchery companies, four feed companies, and four pharmaceutical companies. Group-3 included three middlemen, three feed dealers, three wholesalers and three retailers operating in markets. Although most recruited stakeholders were from Chattogram district, the companies in Group-1 were selected from across the entire country. Participants microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free asked open-ended questions about the impact of COVID on their business, their coping strategies, current livelihood and financial situation, assessment of the future of the poultry business in the coming months, the support they have received and their expectations of the government.
The questions were adapted to the different types of stakeholders, and microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free probing questions were asked as appropriate. Most stakeholders were interviewed individually by cell phone, but the managers or senior employees of the breeder and hatchery companies, pharmaceutical and feed companies were emailed the questions, to which they replied by email within 2—3 days.
Microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free interviews were not possible during this period of research due to government sanctioned restrictions to address the spread of Microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free Using remote methods, however, allowed us to gather real information on stakeholder experiences in the midst of the pandemic.
Oral interviews were recorded with the consent of the participants and lasted an average of 30 min. They were conducted in Bengali by one researcher RM between 4 April and 2 Maytranscribed and translated into English. The respondents were contacted again if clarification was required. Nationwide price data could not be consistently recorded and the frequency of price data reporting differed between districts. Therefore, analysis of price data was limited to 10 districts where prices were most consistently reported.
These cover different geographical areas of the country. Data on poultry prices prior to were not available from this source. To assess whether observed poultry price patterns could have been explained by seasonal variations, prices for the first half of were compared with poultry prices for These data were collected through a previous study Moyen et al.
Briefly, 43 vendors operating in six markets in Dhaka and Chattogram microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free interviewed monthly about the price of their chickens, to assess price changes over a year. In addition, 's retail prices of exotic broiler and Sonali chickens and eggs in two live bird markets within Chattogram City Corporation area Jhautola and Microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free urban markets were recorded.
For the period January to Marchthese prices were supplied retrospectively by the poultry vendors operating in these markets. Prices were then monitored prospectively and daily from April to June Thematic analysis was conducted to identify and interpret the manifest and latent content of the qualitative responses following Pope et al. For microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free purpose, two researchers AAS, ASM familiarized themselves with the transcripts of the stakeholder interviews.
One of them AAS systematically coded the data. Initial themes were then generated and discussed. They were refined and a final set of themes agreed. The temporal evolution of chicken and egg prices was visualized using Microsoft Excel A distinct impact of COVID on the poultry sector was a fluctuation in microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free chicken and egg prices prior to, during and following lockdown January—June For each commodity, namely exotic broiler chickens, Sonali chickens and layer eggs, wholesale farm gate prices followed similar patterns across the 10 selected districts gray lines in Figure 1.
In the following, we focus on the prices averaged over the 10 districts black lines in Figure 1. Figure 1. Prices of exotic broiler chickens, Sonali chickens and eggs decreased in the period immediately following the announcement of the General Holiday on 22 March microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free, with the greatest impact on exotic broilers.
As Ramadan started, on 24 April, the price of chickens and eggs rose Figures 12. As a result, the price of chicken also rises. This upward trend continued until the Eid-ul-Fitr, in late May.
The price of exotic broiler was then almost twice as high as at the start of the lockdown. This may indicate some recovery in consumer demand brought about by activities associated with these holidays New Age, Indeed, in Bangladesh and throughout the Muslim world, the demand for animal protein has been reported to increase during Ramadan Microsoft office 2016 price in bangladesh free World, After the Eid-ul-Fitr, the price of exotic broilers saw another downturn.
As the lockdown was lifted 30 Mayprices continued to fluctuate while remaining higher than during the pre-lockdown period. Sonali chicken prices showed smaller fluctuations. Prices increased steadily during Ramadan, and, by the end of the lockdown period, they had reached slightly higher levels than at the start of the year. Sonali chickens make up a smaller proportion of the chicken products sold as compared to broilers, and they sell for a higher price to mostly wealthier customers.
Furthermore, while broiler chickens reach maturity in 30—35 days committing producers to a relatively fast sale of flocks and hesitancy to keep them longer, Sonali chickens only reach maturity after 70—90 days so can be held back from sale for longer if the price is not satisfactory. This may be one of the reasons for Sonali chicken prices to fluctuate less than the prices of other types of chickens.
Whether this is the case cannot be explored from the data reported in this study but may be answered from further research. They attained their pre-lockdown level in the week preceding the end of the lockdown. Figure 2. Sales per day by volume, and retail and farm gate chicken and egg prices compared as reported in two live bird markets in Chattogram in January to June A comparison of chicken price ratios from January to June in Dhaka and Chattogram markets and all 10 districts suggests that this pattern is unlikely explained by seasonal variations but instead strongly influenced by the COVID pandemic and associated interventions Figure 3.
Monitored Sonali prices showed no major fluctuations in both years. Compared to exotic broilers the price fluctuations for Sonali were markedly less dramatic, with fluctuations during the lockdown periods no greater than during the pre-lockdown period.
Figure 3. Comparison of chicken prices median prices in January—June: median price in January in two districts and 10 districts. We also monitored retail prices in two poultry shops in two markets of Chattogram City retrospectively January to April and prospectively May and June. Similar patterns were observed in retail prices of broiler and Sonali chicken as in farm gate prices, but fluctuations of retail prices were smaller Figure 2.
For eggs, the trough in retail prices was similar, but delayed, compared to wholesale prices. Sales increased in May and June but remained lower than in January and February.