Pyongyang residents are thrilled about the Kwangchon Chicken Farm chicken and eggs recently made available by their government, Daily NK has learned.
Speaking on condition of anonymity, a source in Pyongyang told Daily NK on Thursday that state-run supermarkets in all the city’s districts have been supplying chicken and eggs from the farm at the rate of KPW 2,100 per kilogram of chicken and KPW 200 per egg.
Considering that three kilograms of frozen chicken sold for KPW 42,000 to KPW 50,000 at a marketplace in Pyongyang’s central district on Feb. 4, the government is providing poultry at about one-seventh of the market price.
North Korea has allocated 800 grams of chicken per person, which means a family of three could buy 2.4 kilograms of chicken. The source added that chickens were not cut up to meet the weight limit, but were distributed whole, even if they weighed 100 to 300 grams more than the nominal allotment.
Egg purchases were limited to six per adult, three per teenager in middle school and older, and two per primary school student and younger. But supermarkets in some Pyongyang suburbs limited egg purchases to two per person, regardless of age.
Given the limited supply, supermarkets away from the city center received lower-quality chicken and fewer eggs.
Some of the chickens sold on the outskirts of the city were so lousy that they were dubbed “computer chickens,” suggesting the robotic nature of being raised on a factory farm. Some citizens even complained that the defrosted chicken had an unpleasant smell.
On the whole, however, the citizens of Pyongyang have responded very positively to the supply of chickens and eggs. In Central District and Mangyongdae District in the heart of the city, the source said, many people were satisfied with the quality of the chickens. They also appreciated the high standard of hygiene, as the chickens were packaged separately and kept refrigerated.