Source: Bhavya Sukheja, Republic World
As some Indians believe the fake news that coronavirus spreads through eating chicken, mutton and seafood, more and more people are now switching to jackfruit to soothe their meat cravings. While the price of chicken has gone down, the price of jackfruit has spiked to Rs 120 (USD 1.60) per kilogram. The price of jackfruit is now higher than chicken which is reportedly now selling at Rs 80 (USD 1.07) per kilogram due to poor demand.
While speaking to a local media outlet, Purnima Srivastava, who savours non-vegetarian food, said that it is better to have kathal biryani instead of mutton biryani. She added that the vegetable tastes reasonably good, however, it has been sold out in the vegetable market and is now difficult to find.
Earlier this week, the Poultry Industry experts reportedly said that the sales of chicken have dropped by nearly 35 per cent in the past few days. The Poultry Farm Association (PFA) also organised a Chicken Mela in Gorakhpur to dispel the misconception that birds are carriers of the deadly virus. The head of the PFA reportedly said that they gave away plateful of chicken dishes for Rs 30 (USD 0.40) to encourage people to savour the delicacies and their entire, one thousand kilograms of chicken, was sold out.
‘A misconception’
However, the mela did not do much to dispel the fears about chicken. Even though the government has also been making efforts in dispelling rumours about the consumption of certain food items, people have still refrained from buying chicken to save themselves from the spread of the disease. Last week, District magistrates at Lucknow and Muzaffarnagar in Uttar Pradesh banned the sale of meat in open areas. Following this, many restaurants and hotels have put up signs informing their consumers about no availability of non-vegetarian food.
FSSAI chief G S G Ayyangar also said, “There is a misconception that coronavirus will spread through chicken, mutton and seafood. There is nothing like that. It is scientifically not proven. “I am a scientist, I will not buy this argument”.
According to reports, Karnataka has been suffering due to rumours surrounding coronavirus as the poultry industry is facing a daily loss of nearly Rs 65 crore (USD 8.7 million). The Maharashtrian poultry industry is also bearing a loss of Rs 150 crore (USD 20 million) on a daily basis due to the decline in demand for livestock. Ghazipur, the largest meat market in Delhi, has dropped the prices of wholesale poultry chicken by over 45 per cent in the last four weeks.