With just 25% sale, poultry biz yet to take off post relaxations

Ajay Joshi

Advertisement

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, June 7

With rumours of the Covid-19 spread being linked to chicken and eggs, poultry business of farmers in the region was hit even before the lockdown.

The farmers reportedly suffered heavy losses in the past two months after the social media was flooded with several unverified claims, such as poultry products being responsible for outbreak of Covid. The meat industry has been worst hit as the wholesale prices had slipped below the breakeven level. However, with the help of official health guidelines and ease in the relaxations, the poultry business is gradually gaining pace. The average demand of chicken and eggs on the market also started increasing since the third phase of nationwide lockdown.

Jaswinder Singh, owner of Nahal Poultry Farm at Hassanmunda village near Kartarpur, said, along with chicken, the sale of eggs was equally affected after the Covid outbreak. “The rate of a broiler of 1 kg had came down from Rs 90 to Rs 30-40. Similarly, the rate of 100 eggs, which was Rs 400, has dipped to Rs 200. Our daily profit of around Rs 14-15 lakh has drastically evaporated. Apart from selling the chicken and three different kinds of eggs in the state, our supplies go to many states in the country. In March, we even destroyed our production due to unavailability of customers. However, now that the sales have resumed, we are managing to sell 25-30 per cent of our produce on a daily basis. At present, we are making a profit of around Rs 2 lakh everyday. Besides, the local wholesalers and retailers informed us that the customers have started visiting them for chicken and mutton. But they don’t want to compromise on the quality of the items purchased and are sometimes found in dilemma over buying chicken,” told Jaswinder.

Hopeful of resuming the business in two months, the poultry farmers, who incurred even 100 per cent production loss during lockdown stated their major customers were restaurants, hotels, dhabas and marriage palaces.

Brokers informed us that the consumption rate of eggs and meat has declined by around 50 per cent and they couldn’t predict when they would start incurring the same profits. For ensuring smooth supplies later, Jaswinder said he had also been taking care of all his labourers and feeding them without any cost.

HIT BY RUMOURS

• The farmers reportedly suffered heavy losses in the past two months because of rumours that poultry products were responsible for the outbreak of Covid.
• However, with the help of official health guidelines and ease in the relaxations, the poultry business is gradually gaining pace.