Dip in chicken sales in V'wada

The sales of the Chicken in the city took a nosedive. The cost of a kilogram of Chicken has gone up to Rs 160 in the last three days. On account of this, the non-vegetarians prefer to shy away from the meat shops and consequently, there is a steep dip in its sales. 

A kilogram of Chicken meat was available for anywhere between Rs 126 and Rs 140 in January. Suddenly it reached Rs 160 per Kg on Thursday. Skinless Chicken now costs Rs 170. People accustomed to buying a kg of Chicken are now buying only half a kg. Even the eggs are beyond the reach of the poor. 

The Chicken production has also come down in the city as many poultry farmers switched over to other avocations as running a poutlry farm has become a costly affair. Normally, one lakh chicks are sold every Sunday and last Sunday they could hardly sell 50,000 chicks. 

``I used to sell 300 birds every Sunday and am selling even less than 100 chicks now,'' says Narasimha Rao, a retail Chicken shop owner. He says paying rent and wages to the workers has become a Herculean task. 

``In the last 20 years, the production of Chicken has dwindled in the district as the number of bird-rearers has fallen and the wholesalers get the birds from Narasaraopet and Samarlakot. After the bird flu, there is a dip in the production of the birds forcing the wholesale dealers and retailers to jack up prices,''  said Tirumalarao, a wholesale Chicken merchant. 

``After the bird-flu, many small farmers lost interest in bird-rearing. The same situation is likely to prevail till the June-end and thereafter the Chicken production may look up,'' said K Somireddy, managing director of Srinivasa Hatcheries. He said as the production is not commensurate with the demand, there is a steep hike in the prices of Chicken meat. 

Even the non-veg hotels have recorded a sharp fall in their customer base. Hawkers who sell `Chicken Pakodi' in the evenings prefer to close their shops than sell it at exhorbitant rates inviting the wrath of their regular customers.