Currency crisis hits sheep traders hard

Bala tal gayi (the worst is over), says Sunny Khatik, a sheep trader from Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh about how the demonetisation of Rs. 500 and Rs. 1,000 currency notes has affected his business.

Inside the sheep/goat market in Ziyaguda, the mood is shifting from deep gloom to sombre reality among the farmers, shepherds, butchers and traders.

“The business was nearly zero for 15 days. Now it is looking up and in another 15 days things will get back to normal,” says Mr. Khatik.

But, not everyone shares the bright picture painted by the man from MP. The sheep market in Ziyaguda is a mini India. Spread over a vast area, it is a daily market with traders from Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh coming to buy and sell animals.

“Everyday we used to trade in two or three truck loads of sheep with each carrying about 250 animals. But now, the business is down and we are managing to sell only one truck load per day. This will have a big effect on farmers as they will have to take care of the animals with nothing in return,” says Ushakiran a wholesale dealer.

“People are no longer serving meat in marriages and I have not had work for the past eight days,” says Narsing, a butcher for hire, who gets Rs. 300 to Rs. 400 per lamb he processes in the Ring Road Crossroad area.

Ironically, the price of meat or animals has not declined due to demonetisation. Hyderabad gets sheep from nearby places like Shadnagar, Mahbubnagar, Sircilla, Kaikoor, etc.

Due to this currency crisis many of the villagers are not coming to the market with their sheep.

There is immense pressure on them to take old currency notes and that is one of the reasons they are keeping away, points out Akbar, who trades in goats in the Toli Masjid area.

A butcher for hire, Ramlal accepts the old currency notes as he doesn’t have a choice and can deposit them into his bank account.

The problem is with big traders, who have stopped using the currency and cut down on purchases affecting the whole market. On Sundays, Ramlal hailing from Langar Houz, used to deal with four or five sheep, but over the past 20 days, he had slaughtered only seven animals. “You can imagine the situation at home,” says Ramlal.