Chicken makes its exit from menus of Mumbai eateries

MUMBAI: Chicken seems to have been taken off the menu of many eateries here given the strike by wholesale poultry product traders that began last week.

"We have been getting barely any consignment of chicken in the recent days as a result of which we are pushing other dishes like lamb and fish instead of poultry based dishes," Amitabh Chowdhury, manager of Fountain Sizzlers, a south Mumbai eatery famous for its poultry dishes.

He said they were using stocks that they had stored earlier to meet with the drastic drop in supply.

Another eatery manager in suburban Bandra, famous for its Chinese cuisine, who did not want to be quoted said they had written off all poultry items from their menu since Monday due to non-availability of chicken.

A wholesale poultry trader said the strike began on March 23 as mark of protest and they stopped purchasing poultry coming into the city.

Wasim, a wholesale trader of poultry in south Mumbai's Crawford Market said, "Poultry farmers usually decrease the prices of chicken following winter since demand is lower in summer. But this time they have refused to do so, which has led to a strike among traders."

He said the strike had affected sales in retail centres across south, central and parts of the suburbs of the city and negotiations were on to resolve the strike.