Bird Flu :: Bird flu hits prices of egg, chicken in India

A day after the government confirmed the outbreak of bird flu, chicken prices fell by over 20 per cent in Delhi’s wholesale market while eggs became cheaper by Rs 8 per 100 numbers at Barwala in Haryana.

“The prices fell to Rs 145 per 100 eggs today from Rs 153 yesterday at Barwala,” a poultry farmer said, adding this would influence prices in Delhi as well.

Barwala is a leading trading centre of eggs in north India and handles 50 lakh eggs every day.

In Delhi, egg prices were steady, but rates are expected to decline to Rs 155 per 100 eggs by tomorrow from the current level of Rs 165 per 100 eggs in wholesale market.

This could be because of less demand as a result of an immediate reaction from consumers, the farmer said.

Asked about the impact on chicken prices, he said: “The farm gate prices in Delhi declined to Rs 36 from Rs 46 per kg within a day of the announcement of bird flu.” Meanwhile, as poultry farmers fear that prices may slip further on bird flu scare, the industry is guarded in its response by saying the outbreak in a ‘remote part’ would not affect domestic prices in other areas.

“As of now, we don’t see the domestic prices to go down because of bird flu as the incident came from a village nearer to the India-Myanmar border,” National Egg Coordination Committee Chairperson Anuradha Desai said.

The poultry industry did not expect the outbreak of bird flu to hit domestic prices of chicken and egg in most of the major consuming centres in the north and other areas as the incident reported from a remote part of the country. However, the scare is likely to take a toll on egg exports.


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