65-day monsoon fishing ban: ‘If you can’t have fish eat chicken’, say Coast meat sellers

Mangaluru: The situation on the coast which is addicted to the hot fish curry and fries with steaming mound of rice is now faced with predicament- the fish availability in the market is trickled down to almost 20 per cent of the usual catch. It happens every year during the 65-day monsoon fishing ban.

It is the common statement found on every non vegetarian gourmet, a friend a relative or a neighbour suggest - “if you do not have fish eat Chicken’ no offence meant, to the famous statement “if they do not have bread let them eat cake” made by Marie Antoinette in the18th century.

However, even chicken appears to be moving out of the plate of a common man following the prices of chicken has also skyrocketed. Every chicken eater on the coast of Karnataka is feeling the ‘chicken run’ of the prices has been triggered by the MNC traders of the chicken feed who have jacked up the prices taking advantage of the ‘forward trading’.

According to traders of both chicken and the feed indicate that high price phase was going to remain till December through first week of January with minor re-adjustments now and then.

The going prices has surprised the consumers all over the state as dressed and processed kg of Chicken has jumped from Rs. 220 to 265 in just five days and chances are that it is going to hit Rs. 300 per kg next week according to the trends in the market.

We are not responsible for this hike, the cost of inputs to the industry has is to be blamed, the main food that chicken farmers all around the country feed their birds- maize and soya is now fully controlled by the MNC traders who are hiking up the rates every now and then as per the demand and supply rules.

‘The prices of Soya has been hiked from Rs. 35 to Rs. 48 per kg in the last one week and the maize prices from Rs. 18 per kg to Rs. 24, these are the two commodities that help the Chicken to gain body weight without any other additives” said a poultry farm owner Prakash Shetty.

The MNC traders of Soya and Maize were taking advantage of ‘Forward trading’ facility and were beating all indigenous price mechanisms that guided the prices of commodities say the retaile traders of Soya and Maize.

As a result of the increasing overheads many hatcheries in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have cut their production by 20 per cent which was yet another cause for price rise point out retailers.

“We are not getting enough birds from Tamil Nadu for Bangalore market, the production in that state has dropped by 20 per cent and the produce is being consumed within the state, but due to long term business partnerships some producers were still sending moderate volumes to this market,” said Ijaz Ahmed, a bulk dealer in Bangalore.

It was a cause for concern, as chicken was the cheapest form of animal protein, in the last decade fish was cheaper but a kg of seer fish now costs Rs. 1000 while Pomfret costs Rs.1100 and even low-value fish like Mackerel and Sardines costs nothing less than Rs. 350 and Rs. 200 per kg respectively, in such a situation chicken prices still have scope for further increase say the market functionaries.

However the rise in prices has hit the consumer hard, those who were buying not less than 2 kgs per weekend have reduced their buy by 50 per cent and some were instead going in for eggs. The hotels and Kabab, Grill, Arabian Shawarma, and Homus vendors have also started falling in line; they have either increased their prices per portion or brought down the size of their portion. “The price increase has hit us too. Though we buy the stock in bulk market rates by the time it goes to the table of the consumer as dishes, it more or less matches the retail prices that the consumer buys from the retailer, so the day will soon come that the chicken dishes prepared at home and at the hotel will have no price parity” Shankar Poojary owner of Andhra style eatery in Mangalore.