Bhubaneswar, June 7: Onion and chicken prices have climbed over the past one-and-a-half weeks due to scant supply.
The price of onion has increased because of limited supply from Nasik in Maharashtra, while the chicken price has increased following the large-scale death of birds due to heat wave in hatcheries across Odisha and Andhra Pradesh. Besides, the retarded growth of chicken in the neighbouring state has also resulted in short supply, and in turn, now Odisha has to supply chicken to Andhra.
Sujata Rath, a teacher at a management institute in the city, said: "Onion is now selling at Rs 28-a-kg as compared to Rs 20 a week ago."
Gayadhar Swain, general secretary of the Unit-I Traders' Association, said: "Limited supply from Nasik is the main reason behind the price rise. Traders of Rourkela and Jharsuguda mainly procure the onion produced in Kantabanjhi and Balangir, and we have no supply chain with the producers. Once the link is established, we can also buy from them."
Earlier, the state used to get nearly 1,200 tonnes of onion daily from Nasik. Now, it has dropped to around 900 tonnes. Earlier, consumers in Bhubaneswar used to buy around 200 tonnes of onion daily, and now, the supply has come down to 120 tonnes a day.
Food and supplies minister Sanjay Das Burma said: "We will look into every aspect of onion supply from the western belt, where farmers are suffering losses."
"The per-quintal rate of onion in Nasik has gone up to Rs 1,700 to Rs 1,800 from Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,300. After adding transportation charges of Rs 420 a quintal, the selling price of per quintal onion in Bhubaneswar becomes around Rs 2,400. When the loss due to heat is taken into consideration, the retail price becomes Rs 2,800 a quintal or more," said market intelligence officer Deepak Kumar Satpathy.
Sources said crop loss due to heat wave was the main reason behind the short supply from Nasik. A senior department official, however, said there was no alarming situation regarding onion supply in Odisha.
Scarcity of onion and potato appears to have become the teething problem in the state. "The National Horticulture Research Development Foundation has decided to start a research station at Boudh in west Odisha to produce onion variety, which can be stored for a longer period. The state government has also plans to create storage facilities at four major places in west Odisha for storing onion," said an official of the horticulture department.
The chicken supply, on the other hand, is dipping due to death of thousands of birds in the hatcheries, especially in south and west Odisha.
A poultry farmer from Khurda district, Prashant Kumar Behera, said: "Andhra Pradesh has seen a huge loss of poultry birds this season and so has Odisha. Besides, the birds are not growing properly due to the heat."
The poultry birds are dying due to heat wave-like condition. As the mercury rises to 40 or 45 degrees Celsius, the temperature inside the poultry shed gets higher than that.
It causes physiological changes in the birds causing death. Their growth also becomes retarded in the heat.
Today in the open market, chicken is sold between Rs 180 and Rs 200 per kilogram, while at the Chicken Fresh outlet of the fisheries and animal resources development department, the rate was Rs 155.
When the outlet was inaugurated at Saheed Nagar on May 24, the rate was Rs 120 per kilogram.
Odisha State Poultry Products Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited managing director Prashant Biswal said: "This year, an unusual thing happened. Earlier, the surplus production of poultry used to come from Andhra Pradesh to Odisha. But, due to the huge loss of poultry birds in Andhra, birds from Odisha are being supplied there, causing a scarcity in the local markets."
"Once the temperature becomes normal during rains, the growth of the poultry birds will be stabilised. In turn, the productions then can also match the demand. The poultry birds are grown from chicks to fully grown adults within 35 to 45 days," said Biswal.
