Each of the 299,880 eggs imported in the first shipment has been priced at Tk 2.29 in import costs based on the prices shown by GM Enterprise.

The protestors have raised the fear of avian flu prevailing in parts of India.

'The government has shifted from its early stand against allowing imports of eggs from a bird-flu affected country,' Bangladesh Poultry Khamar Rakkha Jatiya Sangram Parishad said in a statement Sunday.

The Parishad referred to a statutory regulatory order issued Aug 12, which imposed restrictions on imports of eggs from any country affected by bird flu.

'Permission to import eggs from India will increase the risk of the spread of bird flu again in the local poultry industry.'

Khulna Poultry Fish Feed Shop Owners' Association president Kazi Mohammad Nurul Islam feared that more than 20 million people involved in the industry would lose their jobs.