Blockades disrupt supply chains

VIOLENT politics is squeezing the life out of many sectors. These include both the poultry industry and the milk producers. Both are perishable items, the latter more than the former. Both provide nutrition, the latter is essential for newborns, growing children and the aged, whilst poultry is an important means of protein for the entire population. Neither can be ignored. Yet that is precisely where we face with our politics today. The noose that has been tightened around the normal flow of goods around the country is killing these essential industries.
It is not only nutrition that is at stake. Millions are involved in the production of poultry and milk. Since November, there have been more than 23 days of shutdowns that have dealt a severe blow to the supply and distribution chains. With regards to collection of milk, Milk-Vita alone used to collect 250,000 litres of milk per day, which is not happening. A million cooperative farmers are dumping their milk on to the streets. According to newspaper reports the poultry industry has suffered losses worth Tk.40 billion over the last quarter. Farms have had to destroy nearly 2 million day-old chicks every week and more than 30million eggs, the aggregate value of which is more than Tk.200 million. Perhaps these data mean nothing to our political leaders but they mean everything to millions of workers in the industry and the companies that are going down under since political egos are more important than the livelihoods of millions.