Due to the lack of adequate supplies, the retail price of the chicken has sharply risen in the past ten days in the city of Chennai. The retail price is hovering at Rs. 200 per kg, which was being sold at Rs. 150 per kg in the month of January, and it crashed to Rs. 100 per Kg in the mid of March when the COVID-19 scare spelled trouble for the meat.
The daily consumption in the state has plummeted from 20000 tonnes to 9000 tonnes—organized meat retailers including Fipola and Tendercuts, who sell dressed chicken at nearly Rs.200 per Kg. Boneless chicken cubes are being sold at Rs. 230 for 300 grams by Tendercuts and chicken strips at Rs. 160 for 350 grams.
Tendercuts founder Mr. Nishant Chandran has stated that due to the sealing of the state borders, the organized retailers are running out of supplies. The stock is running low, and the demand is high. The situation of mutton and seafood is worse, which is virtually not available in the market.
The MD of Fipola Mr. Sushil Kumar has said that the prices have doubled in the last fifteen days. The prices of the live bird have gone up by Rs. 35 to Rs. 88 in the market, but they have maintained the same price. Due to these high prices, the demand is also coming down, since not too many want to buy. Fipola has seen a drop in the business of approximately 30% in the month of March.
Ideally, 20000 metric tonnes of chicken are consumed by Tamil Nadu per week. B Sundararajan, MD of Suguna Poultry which is one of the largest in the country having 15% market nationwide and 20% in the state, stated that around 17-18 March the business sale was zero, but in the last ten days meat shops have reopened, but the consumption is still less than 50%.
The farm prices of poultry in Tamil Nadu are in the range of Rs. 67 to 70 higher than Delhi-NCR or UP, which are in the range of Rs. 45 to 50. The retail prices have continued to be high all through.