Roosters are in Online

Vizag January 09: Sankranthi the biggest festival of Andhra Pradesh, in the state lot of cockfights are welcoming on a Sankranthi season.

Online sale of roosters was introduced in 2014 and most of the online trader's hail from the south coastal districts like Krishna, East Godavari, Visakhapatnam, West Godavari and Guntur. The biz picked up momentum this year after demonetization.

For the festival hardly a week away traders have taken the online route to sell trained roosters.They are targeting customers who desire to buy fighter roosters for cockfights, in East Godavari, Krishna, West Godavari, Guntur, and Visakhapatnam.

Demand for roosters is high during Sankranti. Traders have put two types of roosters for sale online. While one category is sold for its meat, the other category is meant for racing in cockfights.

Demand for rooster meat is high on Kanuma, which is the day following Sankranti. People prepare all varieties of food items, sweets, and non-veg dishes on Kanuma. The price of roosters meant for meat ranges from Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 each.

On the other hand, roosters meant for cockfights are fed cashews, almonds, millets, milk and even non-alcoholic wine to make them stronger, the sources said.

Each fighting rooster weighs around 2.5 kg to 3.5 kg. Variants are priced anywhere between Rs 2,000 and Rs 50,000.

Based on the inputs from the online portals, traders fix the price of each rooster from Rs 2,500 to Rs 15,000 depending up on the size, nature, health and colour of the bird.

A regular rooster trader from Kurmannapalem said, "I sell nearly 10 to 15 roosters every Sankranti without posting ads online. This apart, I sell nearly 5 to 10 roosters by posting ads online. The response is good."

He sold roosters online priced between Rs 8,000 and Rs 10,000 earlier.