Panic gripped Kerala’s poultry sales with a reported drop of 20-25 per cent following the detection of bird flu in central parts of the State.  

The situation has brought down the rates of live broiler chicken as well to ₹50-60 per kg in the last two days from the earlier level of ₹90-100.

According to Benny Immatty, President of the Poultry Farms and Traders Samithy, the issue has affected both the domestic sale as well as exports of chicken meat and eggs, which was in the range of 400 tonnes and 7 crore per year respectively from Kerala.

Kerala has to depend on neighbouring Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to meet the demand of broiler chicken meat following the huge consumption in the state. The consumption in the state was 875 tonnes per day against a production of 321 tonnes, he said.  

As per the figures available with Kerala Poultry Development Corporation, the per capita consumption of poultry meat in the state was 10.8 kg, which is the highest among any states. The market is worth ₹3,360 crore on a demand of 2.4 lakh tonnes per year. The egg market is also estimated at ₹1,800 crore.  Around one crore live birds are shipped from outside the State every month besides 100 truck loads of eggs.

He pointed out that the detection of this highly contagious Avian Influenza in ducks in the Kuttanad region has forced the government to cull more than two lakh birds and also to issue a red alert in three districts of Kottayam, Alappuzha and Pathanamthitta.

Though there were no reports of bird flu detected in live broiler chicken from any parts of the state, he said the fear among consumers had brought down the sales.

However, he said that the delay in culling the birds in the area will worsen the situation. There were reports that birds affected by flu in the Kuttanad area have been sold by farmers in other districts. Unless the government intervenes, he said the situation may grow worse, affecting the entire poultry sales in the state.  

V.K. Mohan, Vice President (Sales and Marketing), Suguna Foods Ltd said that the bird flu detected in the state was mostly among ducks in the Kuttanad region, which had contact with migratory birds. “Since our poultry farms are in Tamil Nadu, the possibility of birds contacting with migratory birds are remote. Besides our birds are farmed in a bio secured environment”, he said.

The outlets maintained by Suguna in the state are HACCP and ISO certified with absolutely no threat for the meat supplied. The company currently supplies 300 tonnes of processed meat per month in the state in temperature controlled vehicles. As far as Suguna is concerned, there was no decline in its sales in the state, he said.   

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