Whole sale Prices of Poultry and Egg in India plunged due to Noval coronavirus

Wholesale prices of poultry and egg in the country have plunged by 15-30 per cent since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus disease, or Covid-19, in China, and poultry farmers blame it on fearmongering on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook.

“The misinformation passed on through social media about the spread of the virus through poultry and egg has reduced prices drastically in the last four months,” said the director of leading poultry company in Haryana, who didn’t wish ..

The Indian poultry sector is headed for a crisis as rumours and fears associated with novel coronavirus (Covid-19) hit consumption of chicken meat and eggs, resulting in a price crash. That the farmers are incurring a loss of ₹100-130 on every bird (yielding two kg of chicken) reflects the gravity of the situation.

Farmgate prices are ruling at ₹15-35 per kg of live bird in various regions against the production cost of ₹80-85 per kg. As a result, poultry players have started cutting down on the production to trim losses.

The sectoral losses are estimated at ₹1,000 crore a week due to the prevailing situation, industry players said. It is estimated that the sector could have incurred a loss of around ₹7,000 crore after rumours and fake news of chicken being infected with coronavirus began doing the rounds on social media platforms such as WhatsApp and YouTube from mid-January.Egg producers alone have lost ₹600 crore during February to the coronavirus scare as farmgate prices fell to ₹2.50 a piece against production cost of ₹4. As it is, egg producers are under tremendous stress after losing about ₹4,500 crore in calendar 2019 due to skyrocketing production costs.

Seeking Centre’s help

“It is difficult for the industry to sustain this kind of losses. We have appealed to the Union government to step in and rescue the industry