Abstract:
Executive Summary
The study aims to investigate how the COVID/19 pandemic has impacted on the price of
poultry and poultry products. The current study was conducted by using secondary data
collected from relevant online database of poultry news portal. Data of one year were
collected of which six months from pre-COVID period (July-December/2019) and six
months from COVID period (July-December/2020). A structural questionnaire was prepared
to collect market price of poultry and poultry products from eight divisions (Dhaka, Khulna,
Barishal, Mymensingh, Sylhet, Rangpur, Rajshahi and Chattogram) of Bangladesh. To
collect the data 4 days of a month were considered randomly taking a day from each week.
Total (4 days x 6 months x 8 divisions) 192 days data were collected taking 48 days each
from pre-COVID and COVID period. Therefore, the planning was to collect a total of
(192x2) 384 days data for the study. The results showed that the average wholesale price of
live birds (Broiler chicken, Culled white chicken and Sonali chicken), Shell eggs (Brown
and White) and Day-Old-Chicks (Brown and White layer chicks and Broiler chicks) was
fluctuated due to COVID-19 pandemic, but no significant (p>0.05) difference was found in
prices except live culled red chicken. The average wholesale price of culled red chicken in
Chattogram was 171.12±19.67 on July to December 2019 and 195.34±35.70 on July to
December 2020. In Khulna and Rajshahi the wholesale price of brown shell eggs was
decreased whereas in Dhaka, Barishal and Chattogram the price was upward, but it remained
unchanged in Mymensingh, Sylhet and Rangpur during COVID pandemic. The wholesale
price of white shell eggs in Dhaka, Khulna and Rajshahi showed decreasing trend during
pandemic but increased in Chattogram. The wholesale price of white layer chicks was
lowered by 21.43Tk, 23.79Tk and 31.03Tk in COVID period than pre-COVID period in
Dhaka, Barishal and Rangpur, whereas minor price fluctuation was observed in brown layer
and broiler chicks. The wholesale price of Sonali chicks was 15.67±3.50 in Rangpur during
pandemic. The study concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the
poultry industry.
