Kolkata: Chicken price stable after five-day fall

KOLKATA: The price of chicken started stabilizing on Sunday morning following the publication of Kolkata Municipal Corporation’s report on the first batch of samples. The tests found the chicken collected from across city markets free of harmful chemicals.
The price of chicken had successively dropped in the past five days, causing panic among retailers and wholesalers.



However, Kolkata Municipal Corporation will start collecting samples of processed chicken from Monday. KMC has also sent samples to Jadavpur University for a third-party check on the quality of chicken. “Once these reports come, people will get back their faith. For the time being, consumers’ faith has suffered a jolt because of a small number of dishonest, unscrupulous traders,” said Madan Mohan Maity, secretary of West Bengal Poultry Federation.

Even a week ago, the farm price of chicken hovered around Rs 90-Rs 95 per kg in Kolkata. But five days ago, the price started plunging till it touched Rs 88 per kg on Saturday. On Sunday, it rose by Re 1. The wholesale price had also dropped to Rs 96/kg and rose by a rupee on Sunday. The retail price suggested by WBPF remained the same (at Rs 145) as that of Saturday. The suggested retail price a week back was Rs 155-Rs 160.

There is no room for further dip in price. If it does fall further due to scarcity of demand, it will play havoc with small farmers and small retailers, said a source. Bengal is a chicken-surplus state. So traders always trade on low margin of profit. Bengal’s weekly chicken consumption is 2 crore kg, while the production is 2.2 crore kg.

“We are badly hit. As this is a mal-mas (inauspicious month), there is no social occasion to fall back on. The demand is anyway low compared to last month when there were marriages and ceremonies. Moreover, change of seasons caused a little higher rate of mortality,” said a trader.

“Antibiotics are routinely administered in small doses to chickens on Bengal’s poultry farms to promote growth and keep disease at bay, almost as a replacement for nutrition and sanitation. This is playing havoc with our lives since we, in turn, are becoming resistant to antibiotics,” a source said.