2022 was a dramatic year for day old chicks marketers and buyers in the poultry industry as the demand and supply forces came to play in determining who was the king between the sellers and the buyers.
As it as always been in the industry over the years, there are many unpredictable factors that could tilt the price to favor either the sellers or the buyers.
In previous years, where the corona virus was prevalent (precisely in 2020), the restriction in movement as well as the curfew imposed made it very difficult for the day old chicks marketers to transport their birds to the various customers’ location thereby causing a serious drop in the price of day old chicks due to extreme low demand.
Fasforward to 2022 when normalcy had returned, the level of demand was hardly ever affected by any unforeseen circumstance of events like that of 2020.
Right from the beginning of the year 2022, the demand for day old pullets had started to pile pressure on the hatcheries as an average waiting time of three to four months was the norm for booking for your day old pullet chicks. This gradually resulted to an increase in price of pullets chicks from a modest rate of #300 per pullet chick to the year ending price of #600 per day old pullet,
Unexpectedly, during this 12 month period, the demand for pullet chicks kept on increasing on a consistent basis which further increased the waiting period for booking from 3/4 months as at the first quarter of the year to 14 months at the end of the year 2022.
ON THE CONTRARY
While there was persistency in demand and a corresponding increase in the price of day old pullets, the broiler day old counterpart experienced an unpredictable price of its day olds.
One major factor that briefly affected the prices of chicks was the incidence of aggrieved transporters who refused to transport day old chicks to certain parts of the country due to some grievances they had with a proprietor who they felt maltreated one of their own, though the issue was later settled, the negative consequence was felt by a lot of farmers whose purchased chicks were far from the day old chicks market in Ibadan.
Starting at a modest #400 per day old chick in January, the price of one chick peaked at #750 each around November, with some agents reselling as high as #800 per chick.
With the price of feed selling at an all-time high, one would have expected that there won’t be high demand for day old broilers, but the reverse was the case as a lot of farmers; new and old piled pressure on the hatcheries for day old chicks. This resulted to the shocking price of day old c-hicks rising to #750 towards the year end festive season.
As at the time of writing this article, 2nd January, the price of day old has started to pick up from #350 it sold on December 22nd to the current price of #480.
We hit a peak price of #750 per chick, one can only begin to wonder if the price of day old broiler chicks would hit the #1,000 mark this 2023 despite the ever rising cost of poultry feeds and other operational costs of raising day old chicks to maturity.
Whatever the case might be, we would definitely refer to this write-up by the end of the year 2023.
Till then, happy poultry farming year 2023!
