MALAPPURAM: Tamil Nadu's conglomerates have hiked the price of chicks to Kerala to maintain its monopoly in the broiler chicken farm sector. With the farms in Kerala starting to get active after summer, the price of a one-day-old chick, which was charged at Rs 32 yesterday, is likely to increase further. Last month's cost was Rs 22 whereas in Tamil Nadu farms the chicks are being charged Rs 15 only. In the months of April and May, due to unfavorable hot weather, poultry farming in Kerala farms will decrease. Tamil Nadu had reduced the price at that time.

About 80 percent of the chicks are brought from Tamil Nadu. Large farms in Tamil Nadu have acquired the right to raise the parent birds of foreign broiler chickens by paying huge sums of money so that they will have a monopoly on it. Farms in Tamil Nadu had drastically reduced the number of parent birds in January.

Vankob 500 and Rose varieties, which can weigh up to two and a half kilograms in 38 - 40 days, are the ones that are mainly grown in Kerala.

Cunning plan

Big farms in Tamil Nadu have a clear estimate of how many chicks have arrived in Kerala each season. When the production in Kerala increases, Tamil Nadu lobby will reduce prices significantly and thus the farmers in Kerala will not get even the cost of production. Out of three lakh farms in Kerala, only about one lakh survive. The cost of chicken, feed, medicine, electricity charges and maintenance costs are all much higher than that in Tamil Nadu.

Cost of production

(per kg chicken)

In Kerala: Rs 100-110

In Tamil Nadu: Rs 80