Delhi: Abattoir closure, Navratri cause meat prices to shoot up by 30 per cent

NEW DELHI: The shutting down of the Ghazipur slaughterhouse and a restricted supply chain has severely impacted those reliant on chicken and mutton from their nearest butcher. Also, the temporary closure of shops during Navratri has resulted in prices shooting up by 25-30% at several places.
E-commerce websites, which earlier delivered fresh seafood, mutton and chicken to homes, have not been able to provide any items in the past few days.
FreshToHome and Licious, two e-commerce firms providing poultry items, had listed all items “out of stock” on Thursday. The situation on the ground was no better with physical stores stating that fresh items had stopped arriving, leaving people to rely on frozen meat.
Dinesh, who works at Green Chick Chop in Defence Colony, said only frozen non-vegetarian items were being supplied to them and fresh poultry had not arrived in the last two days.
“We have not increased our rates yet, but the supply chain has surely been impacted. We’re not sure how the closure of Ghazipur slaughterhouse will impact the overall supply, but there are certainly problems in procuring mutton and chicken at the moment,” Dinesh added.
Tejpal Sakla, owner of Meaty Affair in Janakpuri, said that even though demand was high, he was unable to meet it with no fresh chicken or mutton being delivered since Monday.
Prices have risen in the market owing to the reduced supply. “If I have to pay 25% more to procure items, I will also have to raise the selling price. My stock may run dry by Friday,” said Sakla.
Many store owners said customers haven’t been coming due to the lockdown. Nazeer Fresh at Karkardooma, which supplies fresh raw meat, said they are still receiving calls from people and delivering poultry items to them. “We last received our stock on Wednesday. We will have to see whether this continues on Friday. So far, we have not increased our prices,” said Pawan Kumar, who works at the shop.
People said as Navratri is occurring simultaneously, many meat shops have shut shop on their own. Akshit Lamba, a resident of Safdarjung Enclave, said, “We are relying on delivery chains. This will affect the demand and supply.”
Vinod Kumar, owner of Bengal Meat and Fish Shop in Pashchim Vihar, said he and others have shut shop as they don’t sell meat during Navratri. “I haven’t gone to the mandi in the last few days, so I’m unaware of increase in prices after the closure of the Ghazipur slaughterhouse,” he added.