Desi chickens, the local variety of chicken – is the king of taste among all types of chickens you can test.

Be it the broiler or the sonali, no other chicken comes near them – and you will taste the difference when the roast chicken in a wedding feast is not desi.

But sadly, this domestic variety is now scarce in the city markets and shoppers are forced to give up this delicious chicken as their prices go up and up.

The market is now flooded with “sonali” chicken, also known as “Pakistani” chicken.

“Desi hens and roosters are always tastier compared to other types of chicken,” said Delwar Hossain Bachchu, a shopper at Dhaka’s Karwan Bazar kitchen market.

But the sellers say they can't get enough of them.

“Desi chickens are in short supply in the wholesale market,” said a poultry seller at Karwan Bazar. “They are costlier too. A small sized chicken costs at least Tk 150.”

A Tejgaon-based wholesale chicken seller Md Saddam Hossain said people in the rural areas, the main source of desi chickens, do not sell enough of them. “Fewer desi chickens are raised now in the villages,” he said, “More farmers are now raising broilers and sonalis.”

“We bring 5,000 sonali, broiler and poultry chickens daily, but of them, only 300 or 400 are desi chickens. These chickens cost higher too!”

Another wholesaler, Md Badal, said that sonali and broiler chickens are replacing the domestic chicken variety everywhere – in weddings, parties and other programmes and shoppers have little choice even if it means giving up on taste.