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Bird flu: Chicken price rises in Chandigarh as normal demand resumes
President of the Sector 21 Meat Market Association says the price of broiler had dropped to ₹150 per kg, but it has shot up to ₹180 per kg in just about two days.
With no case of avian influenza getting detected in the city and people resuming their consumption of poultry items, the price of chicken products has started to rise in market. And, with a shortage in supply owing to culling operations in the poultry farms of the region, it is expected that prices can further soar.
Confirming that a rise in price is on the cards, president of the Sector 21 Meat Market Association, Ashish Kumar, said, “The price of broiler had fallen down to ₹150 per kg and it has shot up to ₹180 per kg in just about two days. There is a shortage from the back-end, and within a day or two, the prices can rise even higher.”
Prices of broiler meat in other retail shops has gone even higher. At Chawla’s Chicken in Sector 46, the rate of broiler meat had gone as high as ₹230 per kg and as per the staff, it is on the lines of what the price was in December. “The demand for chicken products is going up, but it is still not as high as it was before the bird flu,” said Ravinder Kumar, manager of King Broilers in Sector 46.
The price for eggs, however, remains mostly unchanged as confirmed by Sector 21 Meat Market president. Nitish Singla, the proprietor of a grocery store in Sector 48, said, “The demand for eggs still hasn’t picked up with the grocery stores so a tray of 30 eggs still costs ₹150, which was over ₹180 before bird flu was confirmed in the region. A rise in price can be expected but in a few days, not immediately.”
Saying that people had started ordering chicken dishes in restaurants again, the city head of National Restaurant Association of India (NRAI)’s Chandigarh chapter, Sunveer Sondhi said, “Bird flu was more of a mental block with people, and once people realised that eating cooked chicken dishes is safe, our sale picked up.”
He added that restaurants are still taking extra care and cooking chicken dishes at a temperature higher than 100 degrees for the safety of the customers.
