Pune, Feb 28 (UNI) The poultry industry has appealed to the Union Finance Minister to ban forward trading in maize which is the most crucial ingredient of poultry feed, after the minister announced the ban on forward trading in wheat and rice in his Budget speech today.

The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) welcomed the ban on forward trading in wheat and rice but felt that maize should also have been included as forward trading had not yielded the desired benefits to the maize growing farmers neither had it benefited the poultry farmers or consumers in general, a release said.

The reasons and justification for banning forward trading in wheat and rice are equally applicable to maize also, in the interest of protecting the livelihood of lakhs of poultry farmers and to halt the slow down in the growth of the poultry industry.

Ever since forward trading was allowed in maize, the domestic market price has increased by 100 per cent, due to manipulation and hoarding by speculative traders and MNCs. The input cost for egg and broiler production has gone up by 50 per cent and the poultry industry has suffered a loss of nearly Rs 10,500 crores post bird flu, the release added.

UNI