Chicken and egg producers insist they had no option but to hike prices as they were not breaking even.

Poultry prices hit a high of Rs350 per kg last July before falling to Rs250 as demand tapered off. Prices stayed in this range for the past few months.

“Poultry farmers have been running at a loss from Dashain with the fall in prices,” said Junga Bahadur BC, president of the Nepal Chicken Sellers Association. “Forget about profit, poultry farmers are not even able to recover their production costs,” he added.

Prem Bahadur Shrestha, proprietor of Prem Fresh Meat Shop on the Ring Road, said that he was buying chicken at the wholesale rate of Rs270 per kg against Rs220 per kg a week ago.

Shrestha sells chicken meat at Rs300 per kg retail. Prices increased twice within a week, he added.

BC expects the price of chicken to go up further after a few weeks as a result of chick culling by the Nepal Hatchery Industries Association. The price of chicken meat has to reach Rs300 per kg for farmers to break even, said BC.

The price of large eggs too increased to Rs290 per crate from Rs275 over the week.

Medium-sized eggs cost Rs275 per crate, up from Rs255, said Shiva KC, president of the central committee of the Nepal Egg Producers Association. He said prices would go up due to culling by hatchery owners.

Banshi Sharma, director general of the Department of Livestock Services, said that they had been under constant pressure from egg producers to increase prices because farmers have been in the red for the past eight-nine months.

“The department has started conducting a study to find out the exact investment cost per egg,” he added. Sharma said that the survey would help them to determine the price of eggs.

The department has also written to the Nepal Hatchery Industries Association to explain why they conducted chick culling, he added.

Kopila Khanal, an employee at Srijana Chicken House, said that prices rose in the last three to four days even though there was adequate supply.

“Netra Prasad Subedi, director general of the Department of Commerce, Supply and Consumer Protection Management, said that producers could not increase prices on their own. “Hiking prices arbitrarily violates the Consumer Protection Act 2018,” he said.

Consumer rights activists said that the government displayed weakness by not intervening when traders were jacking up prices on their own.

According to the Department of Commerce, Supply and Consumer Protection Management, the daily requirement of chicken in the Kathmandu Valley is 300,000-350,000 kg. Sharma says that more than 4 million eggs are produced daily.