Suhail Dar/ Meer Irfan
Days after the central Government asked the Jammu Kashmir’s Consumer Affairs and Public Distribution department to not interfere in the price regulation of mutton, the prices of mutton have skyrocketed across the Kashmir valley.
At places in the valley, mutton prices have gone beyond seven hundred rupees per kilogram and with no regulatory authority the retailers are charging consumers at their will. “700-750 normally in urban areas everywhere,” said a mutton seller speaking on the price of mutton per kilogram.
Jammu Kashmir entered a four-month hiatus over mutton rates in 2021, after Mutton dealers continue did not agree on the Government set prices of 535 rupees per kilogram. The hiatus ended and it was agreed upon that mutton would be sold at 600 rupees per kilogram in April 2021.
Following April 2021, the concerned department tried to enforce the rates in Kashmir valley, however, they majorly failed to do so. In the midst of this, the Central Government on June 03 abolished Jammu Kashmir’s Mutton law which allowed Jammu Kashmir to regulate its mutton and chicken prices.
The issue of controlling mutton and chicken prices in J&K has long been a contentious matter. As is clear from the media reports, over the past four years, the cost of mutton has risen by over 50 percent. The government’s approved price of Rs 535 per kg seems to have little impact on the actual market prices, with mutton currently being sold for Rs 650 per kg. With the ng April of price controls, consumers fear that prices may skyrocket further, making mutton unaffordable for many.
“In the absence of any regulatory authority, the meat sellers in the valley are resorting to charging prices at well and it is completely legal. There is no reason whatsoever for such an absurd order and even if one has been issued to stop the department from regulating the prices. Who is in charge right now,” an official of CAPD said, wishing to remain anonymous.
He said that it has been over five days that the order has been issued and it is completely careless on the part of Government to not task anyone with regulating the prices of mutton, which is consumed in a heavy quantity.
Why are the prices soaring?
Once it was one of the most organized sectors of the valley, however, over the years the introduction of middlemen including Kotdhar has led to sharp spike in the mutton prices. With minimal or no role in this chain, the endless intervention of these Kotdhar has never allowed the prices to settle down, said Ali Mohammed, a 67-year-old Mutton retailer from Anantnag.
With these middlemen in charge, CAPD decided to formalize the retail pricing after realizing that they were no longer necessary, however, the department had a little impact on regulating the prices. Against CAPD’s fixed price of Rs 535 per kg, retailers sell mutton anywhere between Rs 650 and Rs 750 per kg.
As per stats, the cost of mutton has risen by over 50 percent since 2019 and over 650 per cent in the last two decades. In 2003 Mutton was sold at 110 rupees per kilogram and at 298 rupees per kilogram in 2013. Mutton prices began to rise in July 2009, when they abruptly increased by Rs 65 per kg and mutton was sold for Rs 180 per kg.
Only when Hizbul Mujahideen intervened in 1993, at the height of militancy, was the impasse between retailers and suppliers resolved. The retail price was then set at Rs. 46 per kg.
Another major constraint, the CAPD official said, is that Jammu Kashmir is importing around 60 percent of mutton from outside. “The decline of local production will eventually lead to the middlemen calling the shots. The Department has little control over the supply of mutton to the retailers. Kotdhars store livestock in large quantities and have their dealers outside Jammu Kashmir who provide huge supplies of livestock to the Kotdhar who give them to mutton retailers,” he said.
The Kashmiriyat reported that Mutton worth approx. 27 crores imported to Kashmir during first 20 days of Ramadhan.