PESHAWAR: A shortage of chicken meat has hit Peshawar after wholesale dealers have shown reluctance to import broiler – chicken produced solely for meat consumption – from Punjab.
Local markets have been struck by a low profit margin after a court ban was imposed on exporting meat to Afghanistan in the month of Ramazan. The wholesale price of broiler is Rs160 per kilogramme. Before Ramazan, it was being sold for up to Rs200 per kilogramme in markets. However, on Sunday it was reportedly being sold for Rs164 per kilogramme.
Local chicken vendor Muhammad Aslam said that the prices of broiler had decreased in the market because of the ban on exporting them. This in turn adversely affected the supply to Peshawar from Punjab as many dealers did not import broiler following the low rate.
Nadeem Khan, a wholesale broiler dealer explained to The Express Tribune: “Wholesale dealers had a margin of around Rs40-50 which has now decreased to Rs20... this is in no way profiting us after we add our transportation costs and dead broiler losses to it.”
Butchers have continued to sell meat at the prices settled by their union instead of those settled by the city district administration. The price differs by about Rs40 per kilogramme.
When contacted, butchers union leader Anwar Khan Khalil said that butchers were not even able to purchase meat at the prices settled by the District Coordination Officer. “How can we be expected to sell it at their prices?” Khalil said.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 6th, 2012.
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