PUNE: With just a week left before the beginning of the Hindu month 'Shravan' next Thursday, city restaurants are experiencing an increase in demand for non-vegetarian dishes. As per Hindu tradition, people abstain from eating non-vegetarian dishes during the month of Shravan, which typically falls during monsoon.
“The demand for non-vegetarian food is always high in the month of Ashadh as once Shravan begins, people refrain from eating non-vegetarian food," said Shekhar Bari, the owner of Durga Bhuvan in Budhwar Peth.
Some continue to stick to a vegetarian diet even after Shravan ends because of Ganpati and Navratri celebrations.
"There will be almost two and a half months' gap before people can start eating non-vegetarian food again.”
“The customers increase during Ashadh (at present) and within the next 7 days, the demand will double," he said.
He also mentioned that there is a special demand for mutton dishes.
"Our restaurant is 65 years old and, hence, people have trust in us and they order more mutton dishes than chicken. However, we are receiving high demand for both,” Bari said.
At Surve's on FC Road, the restaurant that boasts of being 'pure non-veg', it has been business, as usual, this month.
“This whole month, we receive good customers as a lot of people do not eat during Shravan.”
The crowd will continue for one more week until Shravan starts. We are receiving good demand for both mutton and chicken dishes,” said Surve’s Manager Nand Kumar.
“As the month of Ashadh is ending, the demand for non-vegetarian dishes has increased. There is more demand for chicken and fish, while mutton dishes are not much in demand due to high prices,” said the Pune Restaurants and Hotelier Association (PRAHA) President Ganesh Shetty. “Mostly, there is crowd on Wednesday and Sunday as these are two days when people do not abstain from non-vegetarian food,” added Shetty.
DEMAND FOR CHICKEN
- Ganesh Shetty mentioned that chicken prices have remained stable even though the demand has increased.
- “Chicken prices have not increased as there is enough supply in the market. There is also a surplus supply of chicken from other states,” he said.
- Poultry farmers expected that there will be an increase in demand of chicken and, therefore, they had increased the number of birds, which resulted in an increase in supply.
- “Farm-get price of live chicken is around Rs 60 per kg while the dressed chicken is Rs 120 to Rs 130 per kg,” said National Eggs Coordination Committee (NECC) Pune Chairman Sham Bhagat.
- The retail price of live chicken is Rs 90 per kg and dressed chicken is Rs 150 per kg in Pune.