Considering the delay in egg production for eleven months, if mother hens are imported, the Agriculture Ministry has decided to import 200,000 hatching eggs.

They said due to the shortage of animal feed, monthly egg production in Sri Lanka had decreased to 30 million.

 The annual import of mother hens has decreased from 80,000 to 40,000.

Therefore, Minister Mahinda Amaraweera had instructed the Livestock Division to take action to import hatching eggs.

"Although 80,000 hens were imported each year, the quantity decreased to 40,000 in the last year, which affected the production of eggs as well as chicken meat," he said.

 The annual requirement of eggs in Sri Lanka is about 2990 million. The monthly requirement for eggs is between 249 and 250 million. But now it has dropped to 30 million, the minister said.

Although the country has been self-sufficient through the production of eggs and poultry in the past, due to the drop in maize production of 40 percent with the ban on chemical fertilizers in 2021, the lack of animal feed has severely affected the decline in animal production, the minister added.

He said if these eggs are imported before the end of February, the production of eggs in Sri Lanka can be brought to a high level by next May and June. (Chaturanga Pradeep Samarawickrama)