Mangalore: Chicken Prices Soar at Rs 135 per Kg, Any Takers?

By Robert D Costa
Pics by Ashritha D Souza
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 18 Jun 2013: The prices of broiler chicken has seen steep rise in just over 2 weeks in the city.  The chicken that was sold for Rs 73 per kilograms has nearly doubled in just 2 weeks and now it’s sold for Rs 130 to Rs 135 per kilograms. It seems chicken will overtake the prices of beef that is sold at Rs 150 and pork at Rs 160 per kilograms shortly.  The bird that is the choice of almost everyone is going to become much more expensive in the coming days.  As a result, the restaurants and hotels will likely to charge exorbitant rates for chicken dishes.

When this media person contacted Dinesh Shetty, manager of Coastal Hatcheries that has many outlets in the city, Shetty said, ‘the steep rise in prices of soya and corn that is the basic ingredient goes in producing poultry feed has increased from Rs 30 to Rs 37 per kilograms, due to recent exports.  The high prices of basic ingredients forced small poultry farms that are operating across the Dakshina Kannada (DK) district to close down during early May.  The several birds perished in their farms owing to unbearable heat during peak summer,’ said Shetty.

 

As per Shetty, the city gets the stocks from the poultry farms across DK district except a little stock from Hassan. He speculates the price of broiler will not go below Rs 90 per kilograms, assuming the city gets ample stock in the nearest future.  The rise in price of broiler is attributed to less supply from poultry farms since majority of small time poultry farms in Puttur and Bantwal taluks have shut down owing to high overheads that is inclusive of labour. 

A dozen of eggs that were sold for Rs 48 about 10 days ago are being sold now at Rs 54, nearly 20 percent hike which would likely to rise further because of budget conscious customers switching over to eggs and curtailing buying broilers.  At the onset of timely monsoon, it was hoped that the prices will be stabilized but that has not worked. 

Meanwhile, fully grown bulky broiler chicken ‘Tyson’ is being sold for Rs 125 per kilograms. It has its own customers who will buy at any cost.

The fisheries ban is enforced by the district administration with effect from June 15 for 45 days.  The fish will be much dearer as fishing depended on country boats during the ban period. The sweet water fish also fetches exorbitant prices.  The people had to make wise choices in managing their households at the souring prices of broiler chicken.