Meat, chicken become cheaper due to extended Sawan 2023

• Follow

During the auspicious period of Sawan, 2023, people could buy meat and chicken at cheaper prices in India. Because many people don’t eat non-vegetarian food during this period. So, the sale of meat and chicken in the poultry market fell drastically. As a result, meat sellers had to lower prices because of a sharp fall in demand.

Most of the shops in Delhi and Mumbai said they had to sell meat at lower prices at an average price of Rs 680 per kg because of steep fall in demand. Earlier, they used to sell one kg of meat at Rs 740.

Chicken shop owners in Delhi and Mumbai said they had to reduce chicken prices by Rs 20/kg to Rs 220 per kg from Rs 240 per kg, earlier.

But as Sawan nears its end, shops have already begun to raise prices back to normal levels. Nevertheless, these months took a toll on the meat sellers.

Some butchers even saw sales plunging by 80-90 per cent during July and August. This year Sawan started from July 4 and is about to end on August 31, 2023.  This wiped out a major portion of meat sellers’s savings and earnings. Some couldn’t pay rent to their shop owners, while, others left the business and went back to villages. Some of them took loan at steep rate of interests, while, others, managed to convince their  shop owners to allow them to pay July and August rent  in future when demand comes back.

The meat sellers have no hope from the government either. All they could do is to cut down on their personal expenses during Sawan 2023 to make ends meet.

Shajhid Khurasia who is a butcher at a meat shop in Delhi’s posh colony, Vasant Vihar, said, “Can’t describe how he managed during this period. I had to cut costs. I used to sell 40-50 kilo meat earlier, but now it  is just 20-25 kilos.”

Almost all meat sellers we spoke to in Delhi and Mumbai have cut down on personal expenses during Sawan due to lower earnings.

It will bring cheer on the faces of butchers as prices will crawl back to normal levels. Some meat sellers have already started selling meat and chicken prices at rates that were prevailing before Sawan 2023 had begun. Now, all other meat sellers will also start raising prices.