Shimla in a mood for fish & meat

With the onset of winter in this popular resort town of Himachal Pradesh, besides woollens, the urge for non-vegetarian food is rising sharply to beat the cold.

"While in summer barely 1,000 chickens (including broilers) are consumed in Shimla every day, this has already risen by three times. It will peak in late December and early January, when consumption will go up to over 5,000 chickens daily," said Mool Chand, head of the meat market association of Shimla, subzi mandi.

"While in summer the consumption of eggs in the town is around 24,000, it has already crossed the 50,000-mark and will continue to rise as the winter grows," Chand told Business Standard.

The consumption of meat has already doubled, as is shown by the 100 goats slaughtered daily at the town slaughter house. This number is likely to rise further as is fish and pork demand, say traders.

While the price of a broiler is Rs 80 per kg, a kg of mutton costs around Rs 100.

Traders want the state government to raise the prices but authorities say the traders are already making enough profits at the existing rates.

Shimla has a population of around 175,000, apart from the year-round tourists who frequent the town, which has around 500 hotels and restaurants.

Currently, the average maximum temperature in the town is around 15 degrees centigrade while the minimum is marginally above the freezing point; this is likely to drop further in the coming days.

So this plummeting mercury is good news for traders, whose sales will only rise.