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said demand has changed for changes in lifestyles. It appears that demand for chicken meat has increased for various types of chicken-based foods, he said.

Bapon Dey, head of poultry science department at Bangladesh Agricultural University, also expressed disagreement with the DLS estimates of production and demand.

“I am not satisfied with the authenticity of DLS’s data. There are many differences between this data and the real scenario…This data creates a lot of confusion,” said Bapon, an associate professor.

Imran Hasan, secretary general of Bangladesh Restaurant Owners Association (BROA), echoed analysts.

“If the production of meat is greater than demand, it would have had an impact on the market. The price would have been lower than it is now. But that’s not the reality,” he said.

Yesterday, consumers had to pay up to Tk 780 to buy a kilogramme of beef. Two years ago, the maximum price of beef was Tk 600 per kilogramme.

And amid the high prices of meat, particularly beef and mutton, restaurant operators earlier this week urged the government for easing meat imports to increase supply of animal protein in the market and buoy their sales.

Mohammad Shah Emran, general secretary of Bangladesh Dairy Farmers Association, said the cost of feed, transportation costs and electricity costs were increasing.

Therefore, even though the country is self-sufficient in meat production, the price is increasing, he said.

“In the last one year, the price of almost all feed has increased by 50 percent, the cost of electricity has increased by 10 percent, and the cost of transportation has doubled,” said Emran.

Moshiur Raham, managing director of Paragon Group, one of the leading poultry breeders and feed millers, said Bangladesh has a surplus of broiler chicken meat production and increased feed costs fuelled prices.

But, he said, prices of broiler chicken fell in July owing to a fall in demand. Seasonality and the desire of farmers to rear birds affect supply and demand, he said.

Shamsul Arefin Khaled, president of Bangladesh Poultry Industries Central Council, said broiler chicken meat has become dearer owing to soaring production costs.

In the last one year, the overall cost of production has increased by up to 33 percent resulting from a hike in the prices of feed, electricity and transports, he added.

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) calculates meat requirement at 120 grams per person per day.

Reajul Huq, director for admin of the DLS, said people of Bangladesh were now eating 148 grams of meat per day.

The DLS official said they estimate production based on information provided by their field offices.

There are many factors behind the increase in the price of meat. The price of meat has not increased at the rate that the price of other products has increased in the last one year, he said.

Jahangir Alam Khan, an agricultural economist, said, “It is really difficult…to fully rely on the information given by the DLS on meat production in the country.”

“On the one hand production is increasing, on the other hand prices are increasing -- This is contradictory according to the theory of economics,” he said.

“It was seen in the latest household income and expenditure survey that the consumption of meat per person in the country is very low,” he said.

“So, statistically, it’s very difficult to rely entirely on this data,” said Khan, a former director general of Bangladesh Livestock Research Institute.