INDORE: Egg and chicken consumption has dropped by 50 per cent due to on-going holy month of shrawan, when people fast and give up non-vegetarian food due to upcoming religious festivals.The demand for egg in the Indore market has suddenly dropped to 3 lakh pieces per day from 4.5 lakh pieces per day, according to the industry participants.

The holy shrawan month started from July 20 and will extend till August 18 while major Hindu festivals such as Rakshabandhan, Janmashtami and Ganesh Chaturthi are falling in the months of August and September.

Satpal Singh Bhatia, partner at Trilok Poultry farm said, “Consumption of poultry products have gone down drastically and the trend is likely to continue for next two months. Supply for the poultry products is sufficient in the local market but takers have reduced significantly.”

Industry experts said, people shift to green vegetables for a few months with the start of shrawan from poultry products and other non-vegetarian items.

The sharp fall in the demand for poultry consumption has led to a drop in prices of poultry products.

The prices of eggs in wholesale marker of Indore has dropped to Rs 3.90 per piece from Rs 4.50 per piece around 1.5 months back while chicken prices have gone down to Rs 72-75 per kg from Rs 90 per kg during the same duration, according to three whole sellers of poultry products in the city market.

Pawan Agarwal, owner of an Indore based feed supplier firm said, “Prices of poultry products have fallen sharply in the past one month. Prices are likely to trade weak until a few months now because of poor demand.”

Industry participants said, prices of chicken have come very close to cost of production and any dip in prices may severely hit the poultry firms. According to three poultry farm owners, cost of production for chicken is about Rs 65 per kg and if chicken prices in wholesale market falls below Rs 70 per kg, poultry farmers may reduce the output.

Bhatia said, “Poultry prices are almost at its bottom and any further drop in prices will kill the business of local poultry farms and production may see a sharp fall.”