Chicken and egg sales likely to reach the pre-Covid levels by March

NEW DELHI: Chicken and egg sales in the country have recovered significantly and are likely to reach the pre-Covid levels by March recovering from a battering the industry received on account of the pandemic and subsequent lockdowns that forced farmers to stop operations, industry executives said.
“Chicken sales and production are back to about 75%, eggs to 80% and by March we will reach the pre-Covid level,” said BS Yadav, MD, Godrej Agrovet, an animal feed company whose poultry arm, Godrej Tyson Foods, sells fresh and frozen chicken.

The revival is driven by household demand while there is some improvement in sales to hotels and restaurants, Yadav said.

This has helped push up prices that had dived through the early phase of the pandemic, said Surinder Kumar Bhutani, chairman for Delhi zone of the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC).

"There is a 30% increase in the egg prices in the last six months. We have come a long way from organising chicken festivals where were selling it at discounts and even free to the current prices of Rs 85-90 a kg. Prices will touch Rs 110-120 a kg by March. Looking at the good returns, even farmers have gradually started opening the production of broiler and eggs,” Bhutani said.

Low prices in March prompted many farmers, traders, and manufacturers to stop operations.

Suguna Poultry Farms’ chairman B Soundararajan said sales were up to 85% to 90% of the pre Covid levels. “There has been a good increase in home consumption which will further rise in the winter months," he said and added that stable prices of maize and soyabean meal too will help farmers to increase production.

Prices of maize have come down from a high of Rs 24 a kg last year to current prices of Rs 14 to Rs 17 per kg in different markets of Odisha and Bihar said Sunoor Kaul, director Origo Commodities, a trading company. "At Rs 14-15 a kg, maize is attractive for stocking for returns and margins, " Kaul said.