Nigeria faces imminent egg shortages as day-old chick prices have surged 67 percent in three months, Business Day’s findings show.
Poultry farmers are struggling to restock and boost production amid months-long waits for pullets—young hens produced for egg-laying. The scarcity has pushed the prices of day-old chicks to N3,000 from N1,800 in January 2026.
“There is a scarcity of pullets,” said Dayo Gawati, managing director and chief executive officer of Fdot Farms Limited.
Gawati attributed the scarcity to hatcheries’ inability to meet demand, as farmers who exited the business due to macroeconomic challenges over the last three years are now restocking amid lower feed costs.
“You cannot go into any hatchery to get pullets immediately because of the increased demand,” he said. “You have to wait for at least three months,” noting that many returning farmers are restocking.
BusinessDay investigations show that a combination of factors is responsible for the scarcity of pullets in the country.
Taiwo Adeoye, former president of the Animal Science Association of Nigeria (ASAN), said from his Ogun State farm that the cost of producing day-old chicks has surged.
He added that hatcheries and breeders failed to stock up parent stock—hens and roosters used to produce fertile eggs hatched into commercial broilers or layer chicks.
“Most breeders and hatcheries did not restock the parent and grandparent stocks due to low demand from farmers,” he said, explaining that many poultry operators shut down operations owing to the surge in feed costs.
In 2023 and 2024, the country’s poultry industry suffered heavy losses as prices of maize and soybeans—key inputs for feed—skyrocketed.
The surge forced many operators to shut down farms, which dropped demand for day-old chicks, causing hatcheries to scale down production.
Growth in the country’s livestock sub-sector, in which poultry accounts for a bulk, increased by 0.08 percent in 2025 after contracting by 2.14 percent in 2024.
Sunday Ezeobiora, president of the Poultry Association of Nigeria, said the industry is bouncing back after years of pressure as feed prices, which account for 70 percent of production costs, declined.
Ezeobiora noted that the current scarcity of day-old chicks will require another egg-production cycle to be fully resolved.
Naira devaluation was also cited as a factor contributing to the scarcity.
According to Gawati, hatchery owners were caught off guard by the devaluation, as they rely on importing fertilized eggs for hatching and sale.
He noted that the devaluation made purchases more expensive, forcing many hatcheries to scale down. “The naira devaluation has also worsened the scarcity situation,” he said.
This situation puts the country’s protein consumption at risk. The government’s egg-per-day initiative for children, a major source of protein for low-income households, is now out of reach.
The country’s per capita daily protein intake is estimated at 45.4g, below the Food and Agriculture Organization’s (FAO) minimum of 53.8g.
With eggs currently unaffordable for many Nigerian households due to rising prices, the protein intake gap will widen, and malnutrition rates may increase.
Culled from Business Day newspaper