Trinidad & Tobago Express reports that Mr Karim said that many pluck shops are used to keeping chicken prices really low, while at the same time charging customers up to $20 to have a chicken plucked and gutted.

He said his business charges the normal plucking fee, which is between $7 and $10. Some pluck shop owners interviewed by The Express charge $10.

Mr Karim added that the time for benefiting from lower chicken prices may be gone.

An attendant at Roger's Poultry Depot in Penal said that as of yesterday, the cost of chicken went up to $6 a pound, while Mr Karim is selling chicken at $5.80 per pound.

In April, chicken prices had dropped by 20 cents, according to the Consumer Affairs Division of the Ministry of Legal Affairs.

The small decrease was credited to normal market adjustments as there was a surplus of chicken on the market which farmers would then sell at a discounted price.

President of the Poultry Association, Robin Phillip, said chicken prices will be regularised within weeks.

"We are working off the surplus, prices would regularise to what they were before the surplus. We are hoping to regularise prices in the next few weeks,"said Mr Phillip.