The panic triggered by the avian flu outbreak recorded in six states has begun to affect the downtrodden poultry industry. In Telangana and Kerala, the poultry products demand has affected, in some areas of Hyderabad, prices of broiler chicken have dropped by 5-10% and egg prices fall to Rs 4 a piece from Rs 4.60 earlier this week.
Over all the past few days, prices of poultry items such as chicken meat and eggs have fallen a lot as customers have begun shunning them.
The sharp decline in demand has affected prices in North India, said Ramesh Chander Khatri, President of Poultry Federation India (PFI).
According to the Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying (DAHD), bird flu is confirmed in six states: Haryana, Himachal, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan.
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Meanwhile, in Telangana and Kerala, the poultry sector has come under pressure in the South as well. In some areas of Hyderabad, prices of broiler chicken have dropped by 5-10%. A poultry farm owner said the egg prices (at the farmgate) fall to Rs 4 a piece from Rs 4.60 earlier this week. The retail price of chicken is 5-10 percent lower than the price of Rs 200/kg last week.
Telangana poultry has suffered in the form of slackened demand from other states, although consumption has not been affected much. “Telangana is one of the country’s top three poultry market players. Although bird flu has not affected the birds here, it has hurt consumer sentiment,” a Telangana Poultry Federation official said.
Sluggish Demand
Binny Emmatty, president of Poultry Farmers and Traders Samithy in Kerala, said that retail demand has been reduced by customer behaviour towards chicken meat and eggs and there has been a 20 percent decline in sales in the last two days.
Per week, Kerala consumes one crore kg of chicken priced at about 100 crore. Of this, the state itself accounts for 50 per cent of output.
TP Sethumadhavan, Deputy Director, Department of Animal Husbandry, Kerala, said they had launched appropriate outreach programmes to increase market awareness of poultry products.
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