Fearing Coronavirus that is claiming people’s lives in China, people in India have reduced egg and chicken intake in their diet. It is believed that these deadly viruses are spread by eating non-vegetarian food (egg, meat, fish, etc). Thousands of such messages are being spread via social media. In the fear of sickness, people have reduced consuming meat, which has affected the poultry and meat industry.

Punjab is known as the poultry hub. There are thousands of farms of poultry and lakhs of people are engaged in it. Bimal Singh, who has been doing poultry business in Ludhiana for many years, said: “The situation is quite grim. The item that fetched good price till last month, has now to be sold at a lower price, there is a lull at the shops.”

The wholesale prices of chicken and eggs in the country have fallen by 15-30 per cent. According to people associated with the poultry industry, consumers are being intimidated through all types of messages about the Coronavirus on social media, especially on platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook. This has led to a decline in the demand for eggs and chicken in the country and the subsequent fall in the prices.

According to data from the National Egg Coordination Committee (NEC), prevailing egg prices are about 15 per cent lower than a year ago. According to the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) data, egg prices in Ahmedabad are 14 per cent lower than February 2019, while in Mumbai it is 13 per cent, Chennai 12 per cent and Warangal (Andhra Pradesh) 16 per cent lower.

According to the NEC, the price of eggs in Delhi this week fell to Rs 396 per crate, which was Rs 447 last month. The price of broiler chicken in Delhi has rolled down from Rs 86 to Rs 78 per kilo as compared to the third week of January. Similarly, chicken prices have fallen in most parts of the country whereas there is a higher demand for poultry and eggs in winter.

Ali Akbar, president of the Uttar Pradesh Poultry Association, an organization of more than 5,000 poultry traders, said: “The rumour outbreak has reduced sales, at a time when the poultry business is already incurring losses — both broilers and eggs sales have been affected. There is a fall of Rs 10-15 on the broiler whereas winters always provided a good rate and sale. In Uttar Pradesh, 40 per cent of the farms have already been closed despite 1.25 crore eggs still supplied from outside.”

Coronavirus has not only affected the sale of chicken and eggs, rumours linking goat meat to the virus are also being circulated on social media. Ajit Singh Rathore, who has 400 goats of different breeds in his a goat farm in Ajmer, Rajasthan, said: “There are many videos and reports doing the rounds on social media which are saying that Coronavirus has spread to Rajasthan too, prompting us to sell goats at a cheaper price when we take them to the mandi.”

The total turnover of the poultry industry in the country is of Rs 90,000 crore, with 65 per cent from chicken meat and 35 per cent from eggs. The poultry industry has expanded rapidly in India. From Telangana, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to Punjab-Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, crores of people are involved in this business.

“The spread of Coronavirus through poultry is only a baseless rumour. The ministry has also issued notification to this effect. People must ignore such rumours,” said Dr VK Saxena, Director, Central Bird Research Institute. The government of India’s ministry of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries had issued an advisory on February 10 informing that the poultry products are absolutely safe and that there hasn’t been a single case in the entire world attributable to them.

According to the ministry data, the production of poultry meat in the country is 3.46 million tonnes, which was 3.46 million tonnes in 2016-17 as compared to 2015-16 (3.26million tonnes).

Besides the poultry farmers, large companies involved in the business are also suffering. Nikhil Gupta from Sunrise Hatchery, a company supplying chicks in the North-Eastern areas of Uttar Pradesh informed: “The poultry industry is undergoing a recession and now no one wants to enter this trade. We had 70 poultry farms out of which 25 were closed. Those 50 that are running are also finding it difficult to keep afloat. The company bears the cost of chicks, feed and medicine, but from where the company will give to the farmer if it suffers a loss.”

Many companies in the country follow contractual farming of broiler and layer with the farmers. While the farmer provides the place, structure and care, the cost of chicks, feeds and medicines is borne by the companies. In return, the farmer gets a commission on per kilo basis on the ready chick. In many areas of Uttar Pradesh, it is Rs 6 a kg.

About 50 lakh chickens are consumed every month in Gorakhpur and adjoining areas. However, in the last few days, demand has gone down by 25% and by 60% in rural areas. So, a farm producing 20,000 chickens is now producing 10,000 per month. Usually, the place which used to supply 25 quintal of chicken is currently selling 18-20 quintal.

In several states, chicken melas are also being organized to check rumours and to sensitize consumers. Alok Kumar Pandey, who has arranged a chicken mela at Mahasamund in Chhattisgarh, is also associated with the poultry business. “In the last few days, people have incurred heavy loss, so we are organizing a fair at various sites to benefit the people associated with the poultry business. We have been doing so in several districts and will take up many more by March. We give out chicken biryani, chicken curry, egg curry for a coupon of Rs 50 for eating as well as take-aways.” Devaraj Singh, who organized the chicken mela at Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh, said: “I have 50,000 broiler and indigenous breed of chickens, somebody had to come forward to make people aware, while the ministry has told that chicken has nothing to do with Coronavirus. That is why we are organizing such an event. Recently, we had a mela in Jabalpur attended by hundreds of people.”