Poultry trade feels economic fallout
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-24 08:47

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.