People have turned their back on chicken and mutton and are instead opting to eat the humble jackfruit, often considered an alternative to non-vegetarian food.?
The sales of chicken and mutton have gone down due to coronavirus scare, and 'kathal' has emerged as the favourite alternative.
Jackfruit is now selling at? Rs 120 per kilogram -- an increase of more than 120 per cent over the normal Rs 50 per kilogram.
The jackfruit, in fact, is now higher priced than chicken which is selling at Rs 80 per kilogram due to poor demand.
¡°It is better having a ¡®kathal¡¯ biryani instead of a mutton biryani. It tastes reasonably good. The only problem is that ¡®kathal¡¯ has been sold out in the vegetable market and is difficult to find,¡± Purnima Srivastava whose family savours non-vegetarian food on a regular basis told news agency IANS.
The novel coronavirus has hit the poultry business hard and the Poultry Farm Association recently organized a Chicken Mela in Gorakhpur to dispel the misconception that birds are carriers of the deadly virus.
¡°In fact, we gave away a plateful of chicken dishes for Rs 30 to encourage people to savour the delicacies. We cooked one thousand kilograms of chicken for the Mela and the entire stock was sold out,¡± said Vineet Singh, head of the Poultry Farm Association.
However, the mela failed to dispel the rumours about chicken, mutton or fish.