Chicken prices in the city are likely to increase due to sharp rise in its demand. Retailers said that the chicken meat demand had sharply declined during Eid-ul-Azha and remained sluggish till Ashura. Chicken meat is currently available at Rs 180 per kg to Rs 200 per kg in different markets of the city, which was being sold at Rs 270 per kg before Eid-ul-Azha.
Retailers attribute the decline in chicken rates to prevailing low demand in the market. However, some of them said that the prices of live bird and its meat were deliberately declined to attract customers. It is a general trend in Pakistan that overwhelming majority of people purchase chicken meat in bulk for storage and consume it gradually.
The broiler live bird is tagged at Rs 126 per kg and cull bird live at Rs 94 per kg at wholesale. At retail, broiler live bird is available at Rs 128 per kg and cull bird live at Rs 96 per kg. The Karachiites consume around 400,000 poultry birds daily when prices are high. When live bird and its meat prices decline, the daily demand reaches up to 450,000-500,000 birds.