KARACHI, Feb 1: After the confirmation of an outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus in the city on Friday, stakeholders ruled out any major negative impact on consumers’ buying patterns and sales, in part because poultry farmers had already increased the rate of live broiler birds by Rs6 a kilo.
After this price hike, broiler live birds are now available at Rs70 a kilo as against Rs64 a kilo on Jan 30, pushing meat prices to Rs120-125 from Rs115 a kilo.
However, the general secretary of the Karachi Wholesalers’ Poultry Association (KWPA), Kamal Akhtar Siddiqui, claimed that since the consumers had already faced similar situations a number of times during the last four years, it was unlikely that they would get much alarmed this time.
He recalled that the bird flu virus had been detected in 58 farms during the last four years. “Consumers had only shown signs of real fear when the first case was detected, which resulted in a decline of sales by 30-40 per cent instantly and chicken rates came crashing down to Rs30-40 a kilo”, he said.
The KWPA office-bearer said that he could give the exact figures of Friday’s sale of birds, after the confirmation of bird flu reports in Gadap, on Saturday. Currently, some 350,000 to 400,000 birds were being slaughtered daily in Karachi, he said.
He attributed the recent increase in the price to inadequate supply from the farms. Apart from the unbalanced supply and demand, cost of production had also increased during the last one year mainly as the rates of poultry feed had shot to Rs1,085 per 50kg from Rs600.
Mr Kamal went on to claim that no human deaths caused by the consumption of an infected bird had been reported so far in Pakistan or any other part of the world. Causalities had occurred mainly among those working at the poultry farms, he said.
He said that the consumers were fully aware of the fact that cooking white meat at high temperatures ranging from 70 to 80 degrees centigrade left no room for any virus even the H5N1 strain. He said birds were being culled to prevent an outbreak in other farms.
The chairman of the Pakistan Poultry Association, Sindh Zone, Javed Aslam, said that there had always been a very mild impact on consumers’ sentiments and a very negligible number of people refrained from eating broiler birds. “While there has been a very little impact on sales and prices, it is virtually offset by a demand surge from the lower income group who start purchasing chicken in larger quantities”, he said.
“People are least bothered about bird flu cases and they continue to eat [poultry] without any fear,” he claimed.
Interestingly, the PPA official said that soon after the confirmation of reports related to the bird flu, farmers increased poultry supply to the markets undeterred by any possible negative reaction from consumers. However, the production process was slowed down in such situations, he said.
He stressed the need for checking those schools and hospitals where parrots, birds and ducks were being kept. The government should ensure proper vaccination of these birds, he said.
