Chicken plentiful, eggs expensive

Chicken is available in abundance this holiday season but the price of eggs is once again very high and is expected to climb higher as the Christmas weekend fast approaches.

A visit yesterday to some of the popular supermarkets in the city and the markets revealed that there is no shortage of chicken this holiday season compared to previous years, when there was always a shortage of the poultry.

However there was not much explanation for why this is so. One meat vendor at the Bourda Market reasoned that persons have taken to rearing their owns chicken to prevent the shortage that usually occurs and that may be the reason why there is so much chicken available.

As for the prices, the supermarkets such as Bounty, Survival and Nigel’s are retailing chicken around $745 per kilogramme (2.2 pounds). In the markets chicken is retailing at between $280 and $300 a pound. At Robin’s Halaal Meat Centre in Bourda market chicken is retailing at two pounds for $500.

Meanwhile, the price of eggs is considerably high. Eggs in the market are retailing at between $900 and $1,300 a tray ($30 – $43 per egg).

One vendor opined that the price is high because of the holiday season. But customers are not happy. One shopper who says he is a food vendor says he will not be buying eggs until after the holiday season.

The cost of the eggs, he said, would mean that he would have to raise the price of his food and he refuses to do so. “Is cause everybody making cake they raise the egg,” he opined.