KARACHI, Feb 19: Stakeholders in the poultry industry have pushed up live broiler rate by Rs14 per kg to Rs86 per kg from Rs72 per kg on Feb 9.

On Feb 1 and Jan 1, it was priced at Rs74 and Rs66 per kg, respectively.

At the time of detection of two bird flu cases on Feb 6 in Rawalpindi in domesticat chicken and peacock, the poultry live bird was selling for Rs78 per kg and after two days, its price was slashed to Rs72 per kg. On Feb 9 also, another case was detected in a domestic flock of turkeys and peacock in Islamabad.

The retailers are now demanding Rs140-150 per kg for chicken meat, which is almost equal to beef (bachia with bones) prices.

However, in some areas, retailers are charging over Rs150 per kg for beef meat (bachia).

Pakistan Poultry Association (Sindh) chairman Chaudhry Mohammad Sohail said that the demand for bird has gone up, but their was thin supply from the producing farms.

Many farmers, he said, are reluctant to put day-old chicks for production because of cold weather. A large number of other farmers have kept their production thin due to fear of bird flu. However, bird flu virus has hit domestic chicken and peacock in Rawalpindi and Islamabad.

He said, so far, poultry chicken is safe from avian influenza as proper vaccination has been carried out.

He, however, did not agree that prices have been increased deliberately by farmers to a maximum extent so that when prices come down in case of any bird flu threat, the prices do not reach the worst point when they will be facing losses.

He said the industry cannot adopt this practice as it had already suffered loss to the tune of billions last year due to massive price fall.

General Secretary, Karachi Wholesalers’ Poultry Association (KWPA), Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui, also said that production of birds is slow as against the increasing demand.

He claimed that rates in Karachi have been low as compared to Rs92 per kg in Rawalpindi.

He said 70-80 per cent breeder egg is located in the upcountry where weather conditions are still not suitable for normal bird production.

He added that at least three months are required for production of bird to the marketing stage from egg.

Currently, a day-old chick is priced at Rs25 as compared to Re1 or Rs2 one-and- a-half months back.

He said that poultry bird prices will remain under pressure for the next 15 to 20 days because of slow production in the pipeline.

He said as many as 350,000 birds are being slaughtered daily in Karachi.

He said that the increase in prices has nothing to do with the bird flu cases detected in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.It has been noticed that people are currently not alarmed over three cases of bird flu in domesticated chicken and peacock which is evident from the normal sales of birds at retail shops.

However, fast-food outlets which have already increased rates by Rs5 per quarter piece of chicken a few months back may again increase rates.

Chicken related dishes have already become costlier in many restaurants and hotels.