Chicken meat prices decreased by nearly nine per cent in the last two days in the city amid reduced demand in restaurants and fast food outlets, traders said.
The price of chicken, which rose to Tk170 per kg (broiler) in June, came down to Tk 155-160 per kg on Monday in the city's kitchen markets.
Local and Pakistani varieties' prices also reduced slightly, retailers said.
Chicken meat including broiler, Pakistani and local varieties increased by 20-25 per cent in June compared with that of May. Traders said higher temperature in the April-May period caused a decline in poultry production, which was responsible for the hike.
But weakening demand from the restaurants and fast-food shops pushed the prices further down, they said.
Besides Broiler, Pakistani variety was sold at Tk200-220 (medium sized) and Tk300-320 (big sized) per piece on Monday, which was Tk250-270 and Tk350-370 per piece respectively two days back, Motiar Rahman, a retailer at Nowabganjbazar in the city said.
He said local varieties were sold at Tk300-320 (medium sized) and Tk400-450 (big) per piece-a 5 per cent reduction.
He said demand has declined in restaurants, hotels, fast foods and bakeries during the ongoing fasting month.
"The price may further reduce in a few days", he said.
Md Amanullah Rasel, a poultry farm owner at Kumarjani area under Mirzapur upazila in Tangail district, told the FE that he used to sell 200-250 birds a day, which has more than halved.
Demand reduces more than by 50 per cent during Ramadan due mainly to lower commercial demand, he said.
He said poultry feed and medicine prices have increased significantly in recent times.
"It is now tough to produce per kg broiler below Tk145, the weakening demand is forcing us to sell the produce at lower rate," he said.
He said the rate at farm level was Tk145-146 per kg on Monday, which was Tk 150-152 per kg three days back.
Breeders Association of Bangladesh secretary Saidur Rahman Babu told the FE that the market will return to the previous high in a few days before Eid-ul-Fitr when household demand soars.
According to the Bangladesh Poultry Rakkha Jatyia Parishad, a poultry farmers' platform, the country's 87,000 commercial poultry farms provide 6.0 million tonnes of chicken meat annually, accounting for 45 per cent of the total protein the country consumes.
However, prices of different varieties of chilli also came down by Tk20 per kg in last three days.
Local variety was sold at Tk80-90 while hybrid variety was sold at Tk60-70 per kg on Monday.
Other commodity prices maintained the higher ranges on Monday comparing to its previous.
Lower commercial demand pushes down chicken prices
FE Report | Published: July 08, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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