Srinagar
You work or stay on strike; J&K’s food requirements do not change. Take the egg, the apparently not so major an item in the kitchen, but its requirement has been increasing steadily with the growth in population and the improvement in consciousness about staying healthy.
State’s annual requirement of eggs was at a staggering 1540400000 number in 2015-16, according to official records. In the last one year, it might have gone further as the population increased. If calculated at prevailing market rates, it means J&K spends Rs 770.20 Cr a year on purchasing eggs alone.
Officials believe that almost one-third of the egg requirement is being managed locally. In fiscal 2015-16, for instance, the government said local production was recorded at 48.46 Cr eggs. In a consumption of 154.04 Cr eggs, it means 105.58 Cr eggs were imported from neighboring states, especially Punjab. But there are doubts that such a large number of eggs are being locally produced.
A top poultry doctor told Kashmir Life that given the fact that vegetarian people also do not have eggs, his assessment is that Kashmir consumes nearly two third of the eggs across J&K. “You can fairly say Kashmir’s yearly consumption is 100 Cr eggs a year,” the doctor, who does not want to be named said. “This market is growing because it is a tourist spot.”
A top wholesaler Mohammad Yousuf said by an average Kashmir consumes more than 20 truckloads of eggs from Punjab and Haryana. “Nearly one fourth of it – you can safely say five truckloads are consumed by the army in Srinagar and Ladakh,” Yousuf said. “Rest is the civilian market.”
Every truck carries 680 boxes of eggs which mean 142800 pieces in a truck. This means Kashmir’s daily egg consumption is almost 29 lakh which would cost Rs 1.45 Cr daily.
Yousuf said there is negligible local egg production. “There are only three local egg farmers who supply petty number to market,” Yousuf said. “This area is completely untapped.” He said the local produce fetches better process than the eggs imported from Haryana and Punjab. “One local egg we sell at Rs 75 a dozen in wholesale and there is another variety that is sold at Rs 120 a dozen but nobody wants to get into it,” he said. “Those who are doing have a very small scale.”
