Chicken is the most valuable delicacy at Christmas

Hardly is there any celebration of the feast of nativity without the table bird included in the list of the menu.

Even when chicken becomes more expensive during this season, bidders who cannot do without have no choice than to go for it.

According to a chicken bidder, Mirabel at the main chicken market at Mvog Ada in Yaounde, it is a custom for her to prepare chicken on Christmas despite the fact that it is a delicacy eaten regularly at her home.

To an average woman like Elizabeth, chicken is a delicacy for her and her children on a day like Christmas, despite the increase in price.

Other buyers such as Magdalene will hardly go without chicken because of her children who cannot help but have a bite at Christmas.

She went through the different stands checking the prices of various categories of chicken on displayed at the Mvog -ada chicken market in Yaounde. The old layers, the tender table bird commonly called “agric fowl” and the local breed called “country fowl,” were all available for buyers to make a choice.

Despite the fact that the prices for chicken have virtually witnessed a 50% rise, the demand was still very high with “die hearted chicken eater” like valentine pushing through the crowd to purchase a healthy cock.

For his part disappointed James leaves the market with an empty basket decrying price hike as unaffordable.

The Christmas season business boom is a time for chicken vendors to make quick turn-overs. For a chicken vendor like Dorothy, it is no big deal selling her chicken above the normal price. It is a time where buyers will go in for chicken even when the price is tripled.

The normal tender table bird that was sold at 4000FCFA is now either sold at six or seven thousand all because of the feast of Nativity. The increase in the price for table birds is in valuation of the harmonised prices laid down by the Ministry of Trade.

The Ministry however organises various pastoral shows where basic food items including chicken are sold at homologated prices.