Chicken Prices - Shortage of chicken pushes beef prices up

Chicken Prices - Shortage of chicken pushes beef prices up

Shortage of chicken in the country coupled with smuggling of cattle to neighbouring countries are partly to blame for the high price of beef in the country, said state minister for Agriculture Bright Rwamirama while addressing the media last week.
Rwamirama said, Ugandans residing in the border districts have found new market outlets in southern Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Northern Tanzania.

Today the price of a kilogramme of meat ranges between Shs6, 000 and 8,000 from Shs 4,000 six months ago. “Beef prices have shot up in most parts of the country because of a problem in the poultry sector,” said Rwamirama, without citing the problem but promising that government would address the problem.

But on talking to poultry farmers The Razor learnt that the high cost of poultry feed and drugs are eating into farmer’s profitability. This has forced many farmers to abandon the chicken business.

At the city abattoir along the old Port-bell road an official talking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the media said , the number of cattle slaughtered in Kampala’s three main abattoirs daily has reduced from about 650 to less than 400 in the last three months.

Uganda will by 2050 have close to 100 million people to feed.

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