The shrinking demand for poultry birds and their eggs in Chandigarh and its surrounding areas in the backdrop of the Bird Flu scare has forced the traders of chicken and eggs to adopt novel ways to promote their business.
The Chandigarh Meat Market Association on Wednesday organised a free feast of chicken and eggs for all those who came to the market. They tried to attract local residents who have refused to put chicken in their household menu for long after a sample in domesticated ducks in Sukhna lake was found to be positive for Bird Flu.
The Meat Market Association distributed thousands of boiled eggs besides a large quantity of roasted and fried chicken to people free of cost. They said this was done to clear the misconception about possible bird flu symptoms in the poultry birds here. “We distributed 5,000 boiled eggs besides 300 kg roasted and fried chicken to the locals to put to rest all rumors about Bird Flu”, said Deepak Kumar, vice-president of Chandigarh Meat Market Association. He said there was no any sign of any bird flu in poultry products and it has been confirmed by the concerned lab experts after thorough examination of the samples.
The feast, organised at retail meat market in Sector 21, continued till evening. For many rickshaw pullers, homeless people and others it was a Christmas feast as they ate to the hilt. However, the locals preferred to watch the show from a distance rather than joining the feast of chicken and eggs.
Traders said Chandigarh is a big market for poultry birds and eggs. Everyday, the demand is for around three lakh eggs besides one lakh kg chicken. This is t he requirement of all hotels, dhabas and domestic consumption in the city and surrounding areas, said Deepak Kumar. Another trader said the rumour of bird flu in poultry products has dented the demand severely by around 40 per cent. “local people of the tricity have removed chicken and eggs from their menu hence the market demand fell by 40 percent after December 17”, said Sandeep Singh, owner of Pal Chicken, supplier to hotel industry in Mohali.
He said winter is usually considered as peak season for non-vegetarian food and supply of poultry products increases significantly. “After the incident, we had to reduce the demand from hatcheries and poultry farms and it has resulted in huge loss,” he added. All these eateries had to reduce their demand due to panic of bird flu in Chandigarh, however now after announcement of negative reports of samples collected at various poultries by the experts, the traders hope that their business will again pick momentum due to New Year celebrations.