UP crackdown hits Delhi meat prices
Navratras may cushion impact for now
Meat traders’ strike in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh has halved Delhi’s supply and sent the prices soaring, with mutton selling for ~500 a kilo in some areas on Monday.
Traders at Ghazipur, Delhi’s only slaughter house and biggest wholesale meat market, said they were not getting cattle from Uttar Pradesh, the biggest supplier of animals, which had led to buffalo and goat meat costing at least 25% more.
“Around 6,000 goats and 900 buffaloes were sold every day but in the last three days, not more than 2,500 goats and 400 buffaloes have been sold,” a trader said at Ghazipur, which borders Uttar Pradesh. He didn’t wish to be named, fearing a backlash from vigilante groups.
Delhi doesn’t have livestock farms and relies on neighbouring Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan and UP. The bulk of buffalo supply to Ghazipur is from UP, which is country’s biggest meat producer.
Traders in UP started an indefinite strike on Monday to protest against the closure of illegal butcher shops and slaughterhouses. The crackdown was one of the first decisions taken by Yogi Adityanath, a Hindu hard- liner who took over as the UP chief minister on March 19 after the BJP swept the state election.
Though cow slaughter is banned in UP, like most Indian states, there is no such restriction on buffaloes.
Cow protection and closure of illegal and mechanised abattoirs were some of the poll promises of the BJP.
“The supply has decreased by 50% and has certainly led to rise in prices of beef and mutton,” said Sirajuddin Qureshi, who is the president of All India Jamiatul Quresh, a meat traders’ body.
The shortage may not have an immediate impact as Navratras begin Tuesday. The demand for meat drops during the nine-day period considered auspicious by Hindus, many of whom stick to a vegetarian diet.
Prices of pulses and vegetables could rise if the situation in UP was not resolved by the end of Navratras, said Qureshi, who is also the country’s leading meat exporter.
According to an estimate, Delhi consumes around 40,000kg of buffalo meat and 80,000kg of mutton a day.
“Following closure of abattoirs, traders are not ready to send stock. They are scared of attacks on vehicles ferrying animals,” Asim Faraz, a Ghazipur commission agent said.
As the stock was limited, prices were up ~40-60 per kilo, a meat shop owner in Sadar Bazaar said. The wholesale price of a kilo of buffalo meat used to be around ~120. It climbed to ~175, Mohammad Suffian said. The shop price, too, had gone up -- from ~170 to ~200. In some areas, it even touched ~250, he said.
According to mutton traders, the wholesale price was up from ~380 to ~400. At some places mutton was sold for ~500 a kilo on Monday.
“We don’t have any problem with illegal slaughterhouses being shut down but we are following rules still our business is suffering,” said another Ghazipur trader .