KARACHI, March 25: Smelling consumers' restoring confidence on chicken after a deep fall in consumption owing to bird flu scare, poultry farmers and wholesalers have finally given a deep jerk to the end-users by pushing up prices of live bird by Rs8 per kg in just one day and Rs14 per kg in just five days.

A day back, chicken live bird was being quoted at Rs50 as compared to Rs58 on Thursday, while five days back, it was selling at Rs44 per kg. Chicken eaters received a shock to witness the prices of white meat reaching to Rs100 per kg from Rs70-80 five days back.

City's daily poultry bird consumption has nosedived to 125,000-150,000 birds in December 2003, which later recovered in February to 200,000 birds if compared to peak level consumption of 350,000 birds daily in the megacity.

"It has now reached to 300,000 birds per day in Karachi," Secretary General Karachi Wholesalers' Poultry Association (KWPA), Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui said. He defended the sharp increase in live bird prices to Rs58 per kg by linking it to shortage of birds as 30 per cent poultry farms in Sindh were still closed, thus creating a supply gap.

"The price is now on a recovery path to reach at its old levels, as previously, chicken was being sold at under cost," he added. He claimed that the poultry industry was yet to recover fully from the shock of H7 and H9 viruses that had played havoc with the poultry industry, killing over 3.5 million layer birds in Karachi and its outskirts, causing losses to the tune of over Rs1 billion.

Consumers had skipped the chicken from their menu since December last year in anticipation that the same bird-flu virus, that killed over two dozens people in some South Asian countries, had swept away huge flocks of birds in local poultry farms also.

Consumers had become panicky of becoming death victim in case they took a bite of white meat. However, the poultry farmers and the government clarified the situation, though very late, that only layer birds, which had only 10 per cent consumption had been hit by the H7 and H9 strain of virus and broiler birds were totally safe from any disease. The media hype later gradually restored the confidence of public on white meat.

The rush at chicken-based food outlets, Bar B Q points and chicken broast centres is now picking up as the minds of people have now become clear that the chicken is free from any virus or disease and fit for human consumption.

Taking advantage of this improving situation, the wholesalers and poultry farm owners have pushed up the prices to recover their huge losses incurred to them in December to mid of February.

Ex-chairman Pakistan Poultry Association (PPA) Afsar Qadri said that rising demand coupled with low production have caused a price flare up and the markets may remain under pressure as production of chicks is still very low.

Qadri said that the 30-40 per cent of the farms in Sindh had been totally vanished from the scene in which many poultry farmers, who had been in this business for the last 20 years, had to close their farms owing to massive losses in million of rupees.