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Poultry industry needs insurance coverage


Published : 14 Oct 2019 08:35 PM | Updated : 04 Sep 2020 04:19 PM

Due to absence of insurance coverage, poultry businessmen are being deprived of bank loan facilities needed to expand the sector and increase export poultry goods. Existing insurance policies, that do not favour the country's poultry businessmen, ought to be changed for escalating a boost to expand the poultry industry for meeting the local demand, besides exporting poultry goods.

Industry concerned said, as there is no insurance coverage for this industry, banks neglect to provide loans to poultry farmers. However, the government is working to bring the poultry industry under the insurance coverage, through which the industry will be able to exploit its potentialities.

Of late, State Minister for Fisheries and Livestock Md. Ashraf Ali Khan Khasru said that the government is very much keen to safeguard the sector and soon the industry will be bought under the insurance coverage. According to sources, the finance division has already started working on this issue while the Bangladesh Bank also provided positive comments. After making a policy draft, the government plans to launch insurance coverage in the poultry sector experimentally, like crops insurance.

Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC) President Mashiur Rahman said, banks are not interested to provide loans as there is no insurance coverage for the industry. In absence of this facility, sudden egg and meat price unrest is noticeable in the country. If insurance is introduced, the situation will change.

“Banks worry that poultry owners will not be able to repay the loans if their farms are damaged due to uncertain diseases. But insurance policy will change the notion of the banks, and it will be easier to get bank loans,” he added. For the introduction of poultry insurance, the Bangladesh Bank may provide necessary guidance to the country’s commercial banks to distribute loans, including insurance benefits, in favor of the poultry farms.

On the other hand, as the government is also planning to export poultry goods, there is a need for assisting the local industry in ensuring better management practices by providing tax benefits and proper policy support. They also opined that, to give a positive message to the world it is also essential to establish separate poultry zones where bio-security and other research can be conducted for the betterment of the industry.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) data showed the country’s poultry farms are growing at a faster rate of 15 percent a year. The poultry sector supplies 36 percent of total protein intake through meat and egg consumption. According to the Department of Livestock statistics, the number of country’s commercially-reared chicken population rose from nearly 222 million in 2008-09 to 282 million in the last financial year 2018-19. The country will require 17 billion eggs, 2 million metric tons of poultry meat, 85.8 million day-old chicks, and 7.9 million MT of feed to meet the demand by 2021.