According to Poultry Industry Association, prices of chicken will rise in New Zealand due to an 80% increase in Australian grain's costs, as the nation faces worst drought in decades

As per Poultry Industry Association's executive director, Michael Brooks, Australian drought will have a big impact on NZ chicken industry. NZ imports wheat & other grains from Australia and with an extraordinary increase in grain prices, high production costs are plaguing chicken producers.

Wheat, maize, sorghum & barley contribute to around 65% of the chicken feed and rest comes from vitamins, minerals & proteins. Similar trend is observed in its costs. Higher costs would affect a broad range of NZ poultry meat; from chickens to processed products, said Mr. Brooks.

Astronomical rise in imported grain prices is just too much for the industry to sustain and will cause chicken prices to increase, he said.

"Unless there's a significant rise in grain production in coming 3 months, the feed might not be sufficient enough to sustain NZ poultry industry in the present scenario", said an analyst at RNCOS.

However, NZ poultry industry continues to defend its decision to use imported grain to feed poultry despite criticism from New Zealand's local grain producers. Experts believe that industry itself is responsible for exposure to rising imported grain costs. NZ farmers would have been growing more grain crops if poultry industry, mills & stock feed firms had earlier supported them & paid them reasonable prices for the grain feed.

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