Price of chicken meat fluctuates between 85 and 100 pesos per pound

Among the foods that make up the basic Dominican basket, chicken is an essential element and is also the protagonist of the collective complaints of housewives, sellers, and distributors of this product.

Buying at RD$65 to sell at RD$80, buying at RD$83 to sell at RD$90, is the day-to-day life of poultry meat merchants, while they lament the great drop in their sales.

“Here I sell it for $78 pesos because I have to win something. But, here everyone sells it for $80 and it is better for me to sell it that way,” says “Victin,” owner of a skirt in the New Market on Duarte Avenue.Skirts such as “La Bendición de Dios,” “Aguinaldo” and “Pocho,” from the New Market, are among those that, protected by the purchase price, sell a pound of meat for RD$80.

From one day to the next
“Today it’s RD$90, but yesterday it was RD$100 and it’s not their fault (their direct seller), it’s that they’re buying it too expensive. But imagine, you can’t let it die, you have to keep buying it the way it is,” says Victoria Santos, a housewife living in Los Guandules.

In the supermarket sections, it is possible to get a frozen chicken for RD$74 a pound, while the fresh one is priced at RD$82.

However, in colmados, a regular outlet in the neighborhoods of the Dominican Republic, the price per pound can reach up to RD$100.

Vendors complain
The reason for the “high” chicken prices remains unknown to buyers. However, the sellers claim that the fault lies squarely with the distributors who deliver the product to them.

“No one is going to tell you, but chicken is so expensive because of the truckers who bring chicken here. Those who make it reach the different places are to blame, because on the farm it is not even that expensive. At the farm we buy at 50 and 54 pesos,” said Michael, an employee at Pollera Victin.

Caridad Sepúlveda, who has been living in the poultry business in the Los Guandules sector for 42 years, affirms that it is the first time in history that she has seen the product so expensive. “I came to sell a pound of chicken for $27 and $28 pesos and now one has to sell for $90 and $100, when it shouldn’t even be that expensive. The chicken, because of how the farm sells it, is to be sold for $85 but how it gets here is not possible, ”she explained.

Other meats
The high prices are not only registered in the demanded food product but also affect the purchase per pound of other meats.

“A pound of beef at RD$180, ground meat RD$170, brisket RD$130, pork RD$130 and tripe RD$125”, is the price list of the “Carnicería Coronado” in Los Guandules.

However, they are among the most affordable prices on the market, considering that in other butcher shops a pound of pork is RD$285, tripe is RD$170, the same as beef and brisket.