Chicken prices have crashed across the country due to surplus supply as the birds put on more weight due to climate change and low consumption during the auspicious season. Farmgate prices have crashed from about ₹110 a kg a few months ago to up to ₹60. Though a fall in prices around this time of the year is not uncommon, the drop in prices is much more, causing concern to the poultry industry.

“Prices have dropped to ₹50-60 a kg against the ₹100 cost of production. We should get more than that to make some returns. Though we factor in the drop in demand and subsequent losses in the winter/festive season, the fall in prices this time is unprecedented,” Subba Raju, a 84-year-old poultry industry veteran, told businessline.

However, prices have increased over the last couple of days to ₹80 a kg and could soon top ₹100, said Vangili Subramanian, President, Tamil Nadu Egg Poultry Farmers Marketing Society (TNEPFMS).

“Supplies have exceeded the demand, which is already slack in the season. This has led to the crisis,” he said.

Subramanian said production was higher this time and sales in States such as Tamil Nadu was not good during the auspicious month of Karthigai, the month when the Sabarimala pilgrimage season begins

Suresh Chitturi, Managing Director of Srinivasa Hatcheries, agreed. He said some players have not cut down the numbers of hatchings despite the drop in demand. “They delayed the despatches to temporarily address the challenge. This actually led to the increase in the bird weight,” he said.

Subramanian said birds normally take 42 days to gain weight but this time they gained it within 38 days. “So, birds that had to weigh 2.2 kg weighed over 2.5 kg,” he said.

“The usual price drop would be 15-20 per cent in the season. But this time the drop was double that,” he said.

According to the Livestock Census conducted by the Union Government in 2019, the total poultry population in the country is 851.81 million, up by 16.8 per cent over previous Census. This includes a commercial poultry of 534.74 million the remaining 317 million is backyard poultry population.

Rising cost of production

The industry feels that this situation won’t help it as the cost of production has gone up significantly over the last five years. “The cost of feed (maize, soya and broken rice) has more than doubled. The present price is unsustainable and we can’t take it any longer,” a poultry farmer, who wished anonymity, said.

The fall, however, has not seen a proportionate drop in retail prices. The prices are in the range of ₹160–180 per kg in the retail market.

“Prices have been raised over the last couple of days. It had plunged to ₹50 but today, it is ₹80. It will soon rise to ₹100,” Subramanian said, ruling out any setback in consumption during winter, when the Sabarimala season continues.

In Karnataka, the poultry industry has been bleeding over the past 45 days due to the price crash triggered by a fall in consumption and rise in productivity.

“Farmgate prices of live birds had crashed to as low as ₹52 per kg recently from around Rs 95-96 about 45 days ago,” Naveen Pasuparthy, President of Karnataka Poultry Farmers and Breeders Association (KPFBA), said.

“While the movement was slow, there was a stock build-up at the farm levels due to the rising weight of birds, which went up from around 2.3-2.4 kg for each bird to around 3.2 kg, resulting in the price crash,” he said. 

Currently, the retail price of live birds in Karnataka is around ₹125-130.

Binny Emmatty, President of Poultry Farmers & Traders Samithy in Kerala, said the Sabarimala pilgrimage and the Advent season of Christians before Christmas resulted in a considerable drop in broiler chicken consumption in Kerala and this, in turn, has hit the prices. 

Broiler chicken prices in the retail market in the Kerala are ruling between ₹103-106 compared with ₹130 during the first week of November. Kerala consumes one crore kg of broiler chicken in a week, but the rising production cost is posing a concern for small farmers who are finding difficulties in rearing birds, he said.

T.P.Sethumadhavan, former Director (Entrepreneurship), Kerala Veterinary & Animal Sciences University, said declining prices affect poultry farmers at a time when the cost of poultry production is increasing at an alarming rate.

“We want the retailers to drop their margins and reduce the price of live birds to around ₹100 per kg, so that the consumption can pick up,” Pasuparthy said. 

“Consumption is expected to pick up now,” Subramanian said.

(With inputs from Vishwanath Kulkarni, Bengaluru; and V Sajeev Kumar, Kochi; and Subramani Ra Mancombu, Chennai)

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