Chicken and fish prices is expected to rise in the next 6-7 weeks, as festive consumption is expected to boost demand even as production suffers from rising poultry feed prices.
The price of soyabean, the main ingredient of poultry feed, has more than doubled in the past year, also driving up feed prices. This has led many small scale farmers to reduce or disrupt production, and small poultry feed manufacturers have disappeared.
Balram Yadav, Managing Director of Godrej Agrovet NSE 1.85%, an animal feed and agribusiness company, said that the prices of chicken and fish will start to rise during the festival season. “When demand is highest around Diwali, there will be a shortage,” he said.
Yadav said country's seafood industry supplies also fell 20% from the pre-Covid times. "Exports are affected for various reasons, while the labor resources of inland shrimp farms are affected by the lockdown," he added.
Vasanthkumar Shetty, President of the Association of Poultry Breeders and Farmers (Maharashtra), said: “Due to high feed prices, small farmers have stopped stocking chicks. Poultry integrators do not have this option. But they reduced the position of the chicks by about 15%.”
The current price of farm chickens in Maharashtra is 87 rupees per kilo. "We expect prices to increase by 10-15%, which can help us recoup around Rs.95 / kg of production cost," Shetty said.
Yadav said demand for chicken in Shravana could increase after a month, because restaurants are now allowed to open at night and consumption away from home is expected to improve.
He added that about 40% of chicken consumption is done outside the home. "Although domestic chicken consumption has increased, it cannot compensate for the decline in consumption outside the home," he added.
