Guwahati, April 27: Price hike by big poultry players has led to an abrupt rise in the retail rates of chicken over the past week, retailers and wholesalers here said.

Consumers have had to endure a 15 to 20 per cent hike in the retail price of broiler chicken over the past week. In fact, the price of 1kg chicken has shot up from Rs 120 to between Rs 140 and Rs 150 per kg in the city markets.

"Retailers have no option but to sell at higher rates because the big companies are calling the shots in terms of pricing. Wholesalers have bought a kilo of chicken at a price between Rs 111 and Rs 116 today while retailers are buying at Rs 125-126," Md Anowar Hussain, secretary of the Paschim Guwahati Khusura Broiler Bikri Santha told The Telegraph today.

"Input costs such as transportation and labour charges are there for the wholesalers to bear while the retailers have to keep a margin for loss of weight among the poultry stocked for sale in the markets," Hussain said.

Leading national poultry companies, such as the Calcutta-based Sona Vets Pvt Ltd and Coimbatore-based Suguna Foods, have been operating in the region for several years now. Amrit Hatcheries, a top national player, withdrew from the market last year. There are a number of local companies, such Polly Poultry, Lotus and Fortune, that keep their prices slightly lower than the big companies to stay in the fray.

Pushpendu Dey of Sona Vets blamed shortage of supply and rising demand, coupled with the hot weather over the past two months, for the rising prices.

"The hot weather has led to greater mortality and subsequent losses. Input costs have increased but we have kept our prices at reasonable levels between Rs 111 and Rs 118 per kg," Dey said.

Local firms like Polly, currently selling chicken at Rs 104-105 per kg to dealers, alleged that the big companies controlled prices by charging less when there were ample birds with local farms and charging more when supply was short.

"As of now, we do not have the requisite birds to meet the market demand. This is where big companies take advantage and raise their prices. Besides, we have to procure hatching eggs from parent farms in Hyderabad and Bangalore at Rs 25 each now whereas the big companies have their own farms where they get their hatching eggs," said Himangshu Choudhury of Polly Poultry.

"Besides, they have their own farms where they grow maize, which is a prime ingredient of chicken feed. Their cost of production for a kg of chicken is less than Rs 85. On the contrary, our input costs shoot up to about Rs 95, including a fixed growing charge of about Rs 10 that we have to pay our farmers," Choudhury said.

The daily demand for chicken for Guwahati on weekdays is between Rs 1.5 lakh and 1.8 lakh chickens and more on weekends.

Deba Kumar Barman, founder of J14 - a leading fast-food chain with chicken as the prime ingredient in its snacks - said his business had been hit by the rising prices. "But we have not revised our menu rates for two years nor will we do so now. The dressed variety we buy from wholesalers in the city have risen to Rs 190 a kg from Rs 165 a week back," Barman, a restaurateur for about two decades, said.