Overview
- The Chief Minister brokered an agreement that reduced aqua feed maximum retail price from ₹112 per kg to ₹108 per kg.
- The state has set up a 15-member monitoring committee of scientists, officials, feed makers and farmers and asked a stakeholder panel to submit recommendations within 20 days.
- Officials say sharp rises in key raw materials — fish meal and soybean products up more than 25% in six months — plus export limits from Peru and Chile and higher transport costs pushed manufacturers to raise feed prices.
- Farmers had staged protests and demanded rollbacks after successive hikes; Y. S. Jagan Mohan Reddy warned his party would join a state-wide agitation if prices were not cut by the end of June.
- The government kept the power subsidy for aquaculture at ₹1.50 per unit and will press the Centre on import and trade policy if the committee recommends further measures, a move that could affect farmers’ costs and the state’s export earnings.