Chicken is cheaper than Dal in AP now

VISAKHAPATNAM/Vijayawada: Believe it or not, acche din are finally here for chicken-lovers. For, while the aam aadmi has been seething at the dizzying rise in Tur dal and Urad dal prices, chicken prices are now nearly half of these pricey pulses.
Even as prices of dal, which is the key source of protein for vegetarians, are hovering around the Rs 195-200 per kg mark in the state, chicken prices have dropped to as low as around Rs 110 per kg for the skinless variety and Rs 80 per kg for chicken with skin.While the skinless variety is now selling at Rs 110 per kg in Vijayawada and Rs 108 a kg in Vizag, Toor dal is now selling at Rs 200 per kg in Vijayawada and Rs 195 per kg in Vizag.
While some non-vegetarians are heaving a sigh of relief at the drop in chicken prices, not all of them are happy with the gravity-defying rise in dal prices. “Unfortunately, like foreigners we don’t eat chicken on a daily basis. But pappu (dal) is a staple diet for Andhra people. Even obatlu (sweet chapathi) and laddu is also made out of dal, so with the festival season coming up, a lot of people will be feeling the pinch of the soaring dal prices,” said Kiran Kumar of Ramnagar area in Vizag.
A resident of Vizag’s Old Town, G Narayana Rao, said, “It is a very common practice in AP to eat powdered dal (kandipappu) and rice in the absence of any curry or chutney. So even that has become pricier. Even Muslims use dal for making Katta (like sherwa), which is used as a curry for biryani and is a must for their marriages.”
Concurring, auto driver Mahabub Subhani of Krishna Lanka Area in Vijayawada said, “We can stop eating onions if the prices go beyond our reach, but we can’t manage without dal. I am finding it difficult to even buy a kg of dal. One can’t eat chicken daily.”
Venting her ire, homemaker K Jhansi of Teachers Colony in Vijayawada, said, “The government has completely turned a blind eye to the skyrocketing dal prices. Nothing has been done to contain them. My monthly budget has gone completely haywire. What are we supposed to eat?”
And it is not just the aam aadmi that is feeling the heat of the rising dal prices. Even hotels and restaurants as well as small retailers are feeling the pinch. “Usually we have a contract with vendors for supplying goods for our restaurants. But, they do not adhere to the contract when there is an abnormal rise in prices. Normally, oil prices keep fluctuating but this is the first time in almost 20 years, that we’ve seen such a huge jump in dal prices,” said Daspalla Hotels Vizag general manager S Prashanth, explaining the effects on hotels.
“It is surprising that people, who made big hue and cry when rice prices touched Rs 60 a kg and onions Rs 80 a kg, are completely silent now. The government too is taking advantage of this silence by doing nothing to arrest the price rise,” said Dara Mallikharjuna Rao, a small provision store dealer of Patamata area in Vijayawada. He said that retailers like him too have become victims of price rise as they have been forced to pay huge advances to wholesalers to pick up stocks as wholesalers are refusing to give credit like they used to in the past.
According to agriculture department officials, dal prices are skyrocketing due to a drop in pulses production in the country.
Explaining the fall in chicken prices, T Adinarayana, president, Broiler Industry Welfare Association of Greater Visakha, said: “There has been an overall increase in production of chicken in the country due to which the prices have fallen drastically.” Comparing the situation with last year, he said, “The price of skinless chicken during this time last year was around Rs 150-160 per kg, but now it is around Rs 108-110 per kg in the state.”