Chitwan, March 25:

The poultry industry in Chitwan, one of the largest in the country with millions of rupees in investment, is on the verge of collapsing.

Poultry entrepreneurs here have become more concerned about saving the stock of chicken rather than any further sale.

The price of chicken has slumped significantly here. Chicken is being sold at a cheaper price than green vegetables at Kamalnagar road near Shahid Chowk in Narayangarh. People, who had actually come to buy vegetables, can buy a whole chicken at the price of Rs 50 to Rs 70. The price of eggs has reduced to Rs 40 per crate, whereas it used to Rs 100 per crate earlier. One local chicken meat seller said, “Nowadays only poor people come to buy chicken meat who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Other so called rich people are avoiding chicken.”

The supply of chicken has been stopped to the capital and other districts from here because of which entrepreneurs have started selling meat of even the parent stock that was used for chicken production. Chairman of Nepal Poultry Entrepreneurs Forum, Dr Til Chandra Bhattarai said poultry entrepreneurs have become discouraged due to recent rumours of bird flu in the market. Dr Bhattarai said chicken sold in the market is totally healthy and is safe to be consumed.

According a statistics, there are over 15,00,000 chickens in Chitwan district alone.