No drop in demand or price of chicken

RANCHI: There was hardly any drop in the sale of chicken even after the news of the bird flu outbreak but with the administration ordering a total ban on the sale of poultry meat and related items for the next three weeks, the sellers and customers were left high and dry.
Ravi Sagar, the owner of a roadside food joint, Tandoori vs Chinese, said, “The sale of chicken and related items like momo, rolls and tandoori momos remained the same till Monday but now raw chicken is not available in the market. So, I have no option but to stop selling.” Sagar said he usually sells food items made from 25kg to 30kg of raw chicken daily.
“Thursdays are exceptional when the sale is low but on Sunday and Monday, the sale picked up even though most people are aware of the bird flu outbreak,” he said, adding that the high demand did not drop as there was no news of infection in the farms of Ranchi or the neighbourhood, except for the only incident reported from the backyard of a VVIP.
Meanwhile, raw chicken seller Amir Khan was disappointed as the ban has been enforced for 21 days when not a single farm in Ranchi reported the death of chickens due to the flu. “Had there been a drop in the demand, we could have sold it cheap but when there is a blanket ban in almost all of the entire capital, no one is going to take the risk the opening shops.
Even if we open, there will be no place to get our stocks,” he lamented. There is a high chance that during the festive season, those having stocks will sell them at higher prices to compensate for the risk taken in defying the ban.