Biratnagar, March 10:

At a time when the rumor of bird flu has been spreading in the nation, sale of poultry products has increased in Biratanagar this week, said managing director of Pathivara Morang Poultry Entrepreneur Group, Pravin Bimali.

They have started selling chicken at Rs 50 per kg, down from Rs 50 of the earlier prices, in the markets of eastern development region.

Before the outbreak of the news of bird flu, they had been selling chicken for Rs 100 per kg. The sale of live chicken has reached to 15,000 daily while the figure was 20,000 before the news of bird flu.

The sale of chicken products went down by 40 per cent in the past few weeks.

Since chickens are available at cheap rate, the interest of customers and hoteliers have been growing towards consumption of chickens now, said Surya Adhikari, manager of Pashupati Feed Industries.

Pathivara Morang Group, Gorkha Poultry Farm and Pashupati Feeds are the large poultry farms in the Eastern region, while there are more than 2,000 small poultry farms, informed Morang Livestock Entrepreneur Association.

Marketing executive of Pathivara Poultry Farm, Gunaraj Jamar Kattel said, they have been supplying chicken products from Chitwan to meet the demand. Similarly, managing director of the group, Pravin said daily consumption of chicken eggs is 400 cartons in eastern region. However, the import of eggs has been banned after the news of the bird flu.

The price of eggs has also been reduced to increase the sale of eggs in the region. 4,000 eggs were sold at the price of Rs 2 per egg at the Agro Festival in Biratnagar on Thursday.

4,000 eggs were distributed free of cost at the fair, said Mohan Adhikari, director of Bachchhu Medico in Biratnagar.