Kathmandu, February 17

The Department of Commerce, Supplies and Consumer Protection (DoCSCP) is preparing to take action against the traders that have been hiking chicken price for no apparent reason.

Organising a press meet today, Netra Prasad Subedi, director general of DoCSCP, said that the department is conducting an investigation over artificial price hike of chicken.

“An investigation over recent price hike of chicken is ongoing at the moment,” he said, “If the investigation proves a connection between the industrialists’ protest and price hike, we will take action against the wrongdoers.”

Two months ago, Nepal Hatchery Industry Association had destroyed six million eggs over a period of 10 days in protest against the government for not increasing chicken price in the market.

Earlier, the Department of Livestock Development had stated that due to this protest, the supply of chicken could drop by around 12 million kg in the next month as one egg takes around 21 days to hatch.

The farmers are producing around four million to 4.5 million kg of chicken per month, while the market demand stands at 3.2 million kg per month. Hence, the market should not be facing any shortage of chicken.

However, recently the traders increased chicken price citing its shortage.

Two months back, one kilogram of chicken used to cost Rs 275, which has now surged to Rs 400 per kg. Thus, DoCSCP is investigating the price hike issue, Subedi added.

Amidst this, DoCSCP also presented its market monitoring report of seven months of the current fiscal year. According to the report, the DoCSCP inspected over 1,164 commercial companies across the country in the first seven months of this fiscal, and cases have been filed against two firms. With immediate action and punishment, the department has collected a total of Rs 10.7 million so far.

Likewise, the department destroyed substandard goods worth Rs 153 million during this period.