NECC Seeks Ban On Maize Futures - June 21, 2008

Coimbatore: The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) has reiterated its demand for a ban on the forward trading in maize and soyameal saying the unprecedented rise in the prices of these commodities seen in recent time is due to the forward trading.

The committee has also urged the Centre to canalise the export of these goods through a designated Government agency so as to curb the speculative tendency in the market.

The steep increase in maize and soyameal has severely hit the consuming industry such as the poultry feed and the poultry farming which use these as ingredient in their feed manufacture, the NECC said adding that in the absence of a corresponding increase in farm-gate prices, poultry farmers and breeding farms/hatcheries suffered huge losses.

Already 10 per cent of the poultry industry, most of whom are small farmers, have already closed down and if the situation continued, another 30 per cent of the industry would be forced to close down in the near future, it added.

The NECC in a communication has also wanted the Government to provide an eight per cent interest subvention on bank loans availed by the poultry farmers to enable them to tide over the current difficult condition.