The Kerala Hotel and Restaurants Association (KHRA) has decided to stop selling chicken dishes from February 7. The association said its 20,000-plus member hotels and restaurants would stop serving chicken in view of the recent steep hike in the price.
KHRA general secretary Jose Mohan said hotels, especially small and medium, were not in a position to serve chicken dishes as the price had increased during the last four weeks. Live chicken is now priced at Rs 115-120 a kg from Rs 70-80 a month ago while dressed chicken is Rs 160-170 a kg. The price of dressed chicken, supplied by Tamil Nadu, stood at Rs 105 to Rs 120 a kg a few weeks ago.
“Four months back the price of live chicken dropped to Rs 60 a kg," Mohan claimed, stating the prices were being manipulated by a section of brokers and middlemen.
Kerala gets most of the supply from Tamil Nadu through agents and middle-men while 15-20 per cent of the state’s demand is met locally. Hotels, restaurants and caterers consume 80 per cent of the chicken brought to the state.
Rejecting the claim of the hotel body that the hike was a planned one, VT Babu, office bearer of the Poultry Growers Association, said, "Today a kg chicken costs Rs 85 for us and we take a margin of just Rs 10 per kg of chicken. The wholesale price at which we supply is Rs 92-95," he said.
Most of the poultry farms in the state get their supply from Tamil Nadu at around Rs 35 per bird and they sell these after around 45 days, a poultry farm owner said.
The state government had banned chicken and poultry products from other states after bird flu claimed lives of 4,265 turkeys during last October.
