Broiler chicken has been selling at Tk 180 per kg in Dhaka’s retail markets, but farmers say they are getting far less for it. The question is who pockets the difference.
Farmers across Bangladesh say they sell to middlemen at Tk 130-140 per kg, even as wholesalers at the capital’s Kaptan Bazar were quoting Tk 150-158 on Monday.
The birds then pass through wholesale market traders and retailers before reaching shoppers.
So what does it cost a farmer to raise a kg of broiler?
What It Takes to Raise a Broiler
Mofizul Islam Mollik, a farmer in Khagrachhari’s Matiranga, shared his production costs with bdnews24.com. By his count, it costs him Tk 171 to raise each kg.
Raising 1,000 day-old chicks for 35 days until they are ready for sale costs him Tk 308,500 in all, according to his ledger.
Each chick costs Tk 50, or Tk 50,000 for the batch. A 50kg sack of feed costs Tk 3,900, and 1,000 birds need 55 sacks over 35 days, which comes to Tk 214,500. Medicines take another Tk 13,000.
Husk for the litter, the bedding spread on the floor, costs Tk 4,500 over the 35 days. Labour costs Tk 15,000, transport Tk 5,000, electricity Tk 3,500 and other expenses Tk 3,000.
Between 40 and 50 birds in every thousand die of disease and other causes before sale.
At an average weight of 1.9kg, the remaining 950 yield 1,805kg of meat. That puts the cost at Tk 170.91 per kg.
The gap between Mofizul’s production cost and his sale price is as much as Tk 31 per kg. He counts that as a loss.
Imran Hossain, a farmer from Hugli village in Chandpur’s Faridganj Upazila, says he sells to a middleman, or “dealer” in his words, at Tk 130-132 per kg. He sometimes gets Tk 140.
He says he is losing money at those prices. Three weeks ago, with the market sluggish and birds dying in the heat, he sold his stock by loudspeaker announcement at Tk 150 per kg, and still lost about Tk 49,000.
Imran had 700 birds in that batch, and 70-80 of the large ones died.
Spelling out the gap between his costs and income, he said he is losing more than Tk 25 per kg.
He claims to have shut his farm because of the losses. “I’ve fought long and hard, but we’ve never been able to break the corporate syndicate.”
Chick, Feed Costs Surge
Three companies each sell two types of chicks on the market. At Kaptan Bazar on Oct 18, Kazi Ross A grade chicks sold wholesale at Tk 45 each and B grade at Tk 33.
Provita’s A grade went for Tk 43 and B grade for Tk 38, while Paragon’s A and B grades sold for Tk 43 and Tk 36.
Marginal farmers have to pay Tk 2-3 more per chick.
Jitu Karmakar, a farmer from Jaldi in Chattogram’s Banshkhali Upazila, bought 1,000 Paragon B grade chicks early this month.
The receipt from the local Al-Amin Traders shows he paid Tk 40 each, Tk 4 above the wholesale rate.
A receipt from May, five months earlier, shows he paid Tk 26 for a chick of the same quality. That is Tk 14 more per bird in a matter of months.
Broilers need four stages of feed before they are ready for sale: pre-starter (up to 7 days), starter (8-14 days), grower (15-28 days) and finisher (29-42 days).
At the Nimtoli City Corporation Market in Dhaka, the wholesale hub for poultry feed, a 50kg sack of starter or grower feed costs Tk 3,300-3,500 depending on the company.
Pre-starter costs Tk 80-100 more. Finisher sells for Tk 3,050-3,100.
Jitu bought eight sacks of starter and grower from the same shop two weeks ago, and the receipt shows Tk 3,725 a sack. A receipt dated May 17 shows he paid Tk 3,500 for the same feed.
“They always knock Tk 100 off a sack for me because we know each other. They charge others more,” he told bdnews24.com.
Din Islam, a poultry feed retailer at Ati Bazar in Dhaka’s Keraniganj, said prices have climbed by up to Tk 250 a sack in a few months. Maize has gone from around Tk 25 to Tk 40 per kg.
Maize or broken rice, soybean meal and rice polish are the main raw materials for poultry feed. Industry insiders blame the rising cost of these inputs for the price hike.
Md Anwarul Haque, general secretary of the Feed Industry Association of Bangladesh (FIAB), said soybean meal and DORB, the residue left after oil is extracted from rice bran, have become 20-27 percent dearer. Some other feed ingredients have jumped 35-40 percent, he said.
Higher electricity and fuel prices have also pushed up indirect costs for farms and feed mills, he added.
How Much Are Middlemen Making?
On Oct 16, middlemen bought chicken from farmers at Tk 132 per kg and passed it on to commission agents at Karwan Bazar at Tk 140-145.
By the time it moves from the commission agents to the wholesale market, the price rises by Tk 15-20 to Tk 160-165.
Rashed Alam, owner of Mayer Doa Chicken Broiler House, a wholesaler at Karwan Bazar’s Kitchen Market, said he sold at Tk 165 per kg wholesale and Tk 180 retail that day.
He sells at retail as well as wholesale. Prices should not have gone up this much, he said, claiming traders raised them on the pretext of a small rise in fuel prices.
“Production isn’t what it used to be either,” he said.
At Kaptan Bazar, the capital’s wholesale poultry market, large broilers (over 2.2kg) were selling at Tk 155-158 per kg on Monday morning. Medium ones (1.5-2kg) fetched Tk 150-154.
Md Akash, owner of Sattata Poultry House, a commission agent in the market’s chicken row, said they buy from farms at Tk 130-135 per kg.
Why then Tk 180 at retail? Akash pointed to the cost of bringing chicken from Narsingdi, or sending people to fetch it, and the weight lost on the way.
By his account, hiring a pickup to carry chicken bought at Tk 130 costs Tk 10,000, and a single load holds 2,000-2,200kg.
A consignment of 2,000kg loses 100kg in weight before it reaches Kaptan Bazar, and many birds die in the vehicle. Wholesalers and retailers face the same losses, he said.
Khalil Mia of Bhaluka in Mymensingh buys from local farmers, whom growers and traders call dealers, and sells on to Dhaka wholesalers.
He claims he bought from marginal farmers at Tk 130-132 per kg and sold to wholesalers at Tk 138.
Khalil says Bhaluka once turned out 50,000 birds a batch, a figure that has now shrunk to 5,000 because of the losses.
“Farmers don’t get a fair price,” he said.
He fears a shortage as marginal farmers drop out. “When they’re wiped out, the corporate firms seize the opportunity,” he said.
Md Rezwan Hossain Khan, a field and market inspector at the Department of Agricultural Marketing in Dhaka, counts middlemen among the main reasons prices rise between producer and consumer.
He told bdnews24.com the true cost of producing each kg of broiler is Tk 125-130. There is nothing wrong with sellers making Tk 10 profit on it, he said.
Several changes of hands between producer and retail market push prices up, Rezwan said. “There are a lot of stages here: the commission agent, wholesaler, retailer, so two or three hands are involved.”
If each of the first two takes Tk 10 and the retailer Tk 20, the gap comes to Tk 40 by itself, he said.
Meet the ‘Feedmen’
Md Rashed, the Karwan Bazar trader, said chicken passes through three or four hands before it reaches them, which drives up prices.
“Then there are the feedmen, the ones who supply feed. They send the consignments too. They tell farmers: I’ll give you feed and chicks, you run the farm, I’ll sell the birds. There are plenty of them. One week they hold back, the next week they sell. That’s how prices swing,” he said.
Who are these “feedmen”, and what is the “corporate syndicate” farmer Imran Hossain of Faridganj complains about?
Companies such as Paragon and Kazi Farms Limited supply chicks, feed and key medicines to local farmers under conditional contracts.
Kazi Farms fixes a farmer’s commission at Tk 16.57 per kg of marketable chicken.
Within 35 days, the company auctions the birds to dealers or wholesalers through its own arrangements. The commission varies with output.
About 100 contract farms operate under Kazi Farms in the Cumilla region, run from the company’s regional office.
An official at that office told bdnews24.com a contract farm recently sold chicken at Tk 141 per kg.
Md Yousuf Talukder of Rajapur village in Barishal’s Wazirpur, has run a broiler farm since 2021.
After a few years he found his costs and income no longer balanced, so he signed a contract with Paragon last year.
“I’ve no cash left, which is why I came into contract farming,” he said.
He claims feed that cost him Tk 3,600-3,700 a sack when he paid cash comes to Tk 3,100 or Tk 3,300 under the contract. That is a saving, and it adds to his profit calculation.
In Yousuf’s words, that leaves Tk 300 a sack in his pocket.
Consumers Association of Bangladesh (CAB) President AHM Shafiquzzaman, however, blames the sector’s woes on the unchallenged dominance of corporate groups and contract farming.
“It’s like this with everything. The government is supposed to look into this, but it isn’t. Instead, it has gone into the hands of corporate groups. They take control by cornering chicks and everything else,” he said.
Moshiur Rahman, president of the Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council (BPICC), replied to the allegation in writing.
He said corporate firms’ broiler contract farming and overall market control need to be looked at separately.
Corporate broiler contract farming accounts for an estimated 20 percent of the country’s total poultry output, he said, while independent small and medium farmers produce the bulk.
“So there is no basis for concluding that contract farming alone controls the country’s entire egg and chicken production and market,” he said.
Retailer’s Math?
Aminul Islam, a man in his seventies from Arshinagar in Keraniganj, has been in the chicken trade since 1981.
In the 1990s people did not eat broiler, so he supplied it to Chinese restaurants, he said. Now he buys that same chicken at Tk 165-170 per kg wholesale.
Aminul now sells chicken from a makeshift stall beside the road inside Gate 1 of Bosila City Developers Housing in Dhaka’s Mohammadpur.
He buys wholesale from Sadek Khan Krishi Market. On Thursday it cost him Tk 170 per kg, and he sold at Tk 180.
He pays no shop rent, he said, but “it still doesn’t pay”.
What Do Regulators Say?
Asked about the Tk 40-50 rise per kg between farm and consumer, Indrani Roy, assistant director of the Dhaka Divisional Office of the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection, said they are not a price-setting body.
During market monitoring and raids, they mainly check whether sellers display price lists and keep purchase vouchers, she said.
The normal rule is for a seller to add transport and operating costs to the buying price and sell at a reasonable profit, and that is what they look at, Indrani said.
If the government fixes a price, the directorate will take legal action against anyone who flouts it, she said.
CAB’s Safiquzzaman, however, stresses market monitoring. In his view, consumers could have bought broiler at under Tk 150 per kg if the market were policed.
The former director general of the consumer rights directorate says monitoring is the government’s job.
“We don’t see anyone in the government losing sleep over this. It means traders are overcharging and nobody is challenging them... There are many departments to control this,” he said.
“The livestock ministry should analyse how much production actually costs and what the markups are at each stage of marketing. That’s one thing. Then there’s our consumer rights directorate. Our local administration... any of our leadership can look into this,” he said.