Efforts afoot to bring skyrocketing chicken prices down

ISLAMABAD: The government officials on Wednesday told the country’s top price control authority that rates of chicken meat, which shot up over a few days owing to supply disruptions and high demand, would normalise shortly as efforts are underway.

National Price Monitoring Committee (NPMC) met under the chair of Finance Minister Shaukat Tarin and was attended by officials of ministries of food security, industry and production, commerce, and other relevant departments.

“There has been an increase in the price of chicken due to supply disruptions,” the concerned officials said, while briefing the NPMC meeting.

According to officials, these disruptions are linked with sudden increase in demand of chicken, but the ensured the meeting these prices will drop down to normal levels in near future.

Economic Adviser Finance Division briefed the NPMC about weekly SPI which witnessed increase of 0.04 percent as compared to increase in previous week by 0.51 percent.

Secretary Ministry of National Food Security & Research informed the committee on the stock position of wheat, the future requirements, and the strategy for sustainable availability.

Finance minister directed the Balochistan authorities to ensure stability in the prices of wheat flour by maintaining the daily release of wheat to the flourmills. He also asked the relevant authorities to analyse and estimate the wheat stocks closely.

Secretary Ministry of Industry & Production briefed the meeting on the process for building strategic reserves of sugar in the country to maintain stability in prices.

Sugar price is at Rs89 again with a decline of -0.3 percent which is highly plausible.

NPMC was told there was stability in price of gram pulse, while price of moong pulse decreased by Rs6/kg during last six weeks.

The meeting was also apprised that prices of eggs decreased by Rs32/dozen during last 6 weeks and overall there was improvement in market supply of eggs, onions, potatoes and tomatoes.

Tarin tasked the relevant officials for find alternatives to cut the country’s dependency on imported soybean and palm oil and devise a strategy for meeting the demand.

The chair was informed that stock of soybean and palm oil available the country was sufficient to meet the rising demand in the country.

The meeting was informed there was no shortage of fertilisers and urea in the country.

Ministry of industry & production was directed to come up with a plan to extend DAP subsidy to farmers before the upcoming Kharif season in consultation with ministry of food security and provincial governments.

Moreover, commerce ministry was ordered to formulate a viable plan for price determination of potatoes, while food ministry was directed to expedite the process to formulate forecasting unit for major and minor crops for timely decision-making.