Sale of unconventional meat peaks during ongoing lockdown
Kolkata: The sale of non conventional meat like Koel, Rabbit and Duck of the West Bengal Livestock Development Corporation has seen an increase of over 20 per cent during the lockdown period in comparison to the previous quarter just before the lockdown started.
"The sale of Rabbit meat that was 2.1 metric tonne from mid December to mid March has gone up to 3.7 metric tonne in the three lockdown months. The sale of Duck meat has also risen from 3.6
metric tonne to 4.25 metric
tonne while 20,000 pieces of Koel have been sold in these three months up from 11000 pieces in the
three months before lockdown," said Gouri Shankar Konar,
Managing Director of WBLDC.
The sale of Turkey however has seen a slight dip from 2 metric tonne to 1.68 metric
tonne. A senior official of the department said that an additional revenue of Rs 13 lakh has been earned through the sale of this non conventional variety of meat like Koel, Duck and Rabbit in the three lockdown
months.
The Banraja variety of chicken known as Desi chicken in Bengali parlance has also seen an increase in sale with 4.25 metric tonne being sold in these three months up from 3.6 metric tonne in the quarter before lockdown. "We have led special emphasis on mobile vending soon after the lockdown started and are presently catering to more than 130 housing estates in Kolkata, Bidhannagar,
New Town, Rajarhat, and Siliguri," a senior official of WBLDC said.
At least four estates are being covered on a daily basis by mobile vending machines with cold chamber and other facilities considering the fact that all items sold are in frozen form. Products are also sold through 65 outlets in Kolkata among which 12 are direct outlets while the rest are run by franchise.
Rabbit, Duck and Turkey meat are sold in pieces known as 'curry cut' in packets weighing 500 gm and 1 kg while Koel is sold as a whole in dressed
form.
The price of Rabbit is Rs 550 per kg, that of Duck is Rs 410 per kg while Turkey sells at
Rs 500 per kg.
