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China's poultry trade feels economic fallout
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-23 21:39
China is struggling with its 24th reported outbreak of bird flu this year, as
the wider implications of the virus start to become clearer to those depending
on the poultry trade for a livelihood.
As preventive measures are multiplied and bird flu coverage is stepped up in
the official media, signs are emerging that chicken consumption is declining
fast.
At three major wholesale markets in Beijing, daily sales of chicken meat have
declined by 80 percent since reports of this autumn's outbreaks started rolling
in about a month ago, the state owned The First newspaper reported on Wednesday.
"Before, I could sell 2,000 pounds (909 kilograms) of chicken meat a day," a
trader surnamed Li told the paper. "This morning I received 200 pounds from my
supplier, and I've still got 60 pounds left."
The catering industry is also feeling the impact, as bird meat is no longer a
hot item in restaurants.
"Fewer and fewer guests are eating poultry, especially chicken," said Wang
Li, the 36-year-old owner of a restaurant in north China's Hebei province,
according to the China Daily.
Repeating a publicity stunt attempted elsewhere in Asia, politicians in east
China's Jiangsu province decided to publicly consume chicken to show it was
safe.
Leaders in Zhenjiang city sat down for a lunch
of well-cooked chicken to show there was nothing to be scared of, the China
Daily reported.
Even so, bird flu is unlikely to have a major impact on the Chinese economy,
even in case of a nationwide epidemic in the poultry population, according to
Andy Rothman, an economist with CLSA Asia-Pacific Markets.
"On a macroeconomic basis, poultry is not that important in China," he told a
briefing in Beijing.
"Poultry exports are trivial here. It's less than a quarter of one percent of
the value of Chinese exports," he said.
Of three new outbreaks reported late on Tuesday, one was
in Yunnan province, near Vietnam, the first time this year that bird flu has
been reported on China's border with Southeast Asia.
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