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Chicken abattoirs take one day off as demand drops

The nation's chicken abattoirs took the day off yesterday to save on operating costs, after seeing a declining demand for chicken meat amid consumer concerns over the avian flu.

"The number of chickens slaughtered dropped to around 20,000 daily from about 50,000 daily before the outbreak of bird flu," Wu Chuan-chin (吳泉錦), chairman of the ROC Poultry Association (中華民國養雞協會), told the Taipei Times yesterday.

The association yesterday held an ad hoc meeting in Tounan Township in Yunlin County, with chicken farmers, transport companies and wholesale marketers getting together to deliberate on ways to boost plummeting sales.

Prices have fallen to about NT$18 per catty [600 grams] from NT$23 per catty before the Lunar New Year, according to statistics from the National Animal Industry Foundation.

Wu denied the possibility of chicken wholesale markets being shut down because of the disease's impact. Instead, he said prospects for the local industry look rosy, as they have received lots of orders for Taiwan's healthy chickens from countries infected by H5N1, the stronger strain of the virus.

"We have orders for about 300 tonnes of chicken from Indonesia, Hong Kong as well as Arabian countries, while McDonald's and KFC may consider using Taiwan's chickens in their outlets in Asia," Wu said.

Chicken prices are expected to rebound in less than a month because of chicken exports to those countries, he said.

The eruption of the poultry epidemic in Asian countries has eroded the nation's consumer's confidence to eat chicken meat. But KFC, the nation's largest fried-chicken chain restaurant with 136 outlets, denied any impact on its sales and showed the press its facilities, aiming at reassuring customers of the safety of their products.

"Our chicken products are made in compliance with national hygiene standards, or CAS, deep fried at 170?C for seven to 15 minutes and are absolutely safe," said Olga Wu (吳美君), KFC Taiwan's general manager.

In addition to recognizing the CAS symbol, the Consumers' Foundation also called on consumers to look out for the proof of origin before purchasing any meat.

"We would like to urge the authorities to force retailers to provide the proof of origin in the sales areas for consumers' information," said Cheng Jen-hung (程仁宏), the foundation's general manager.

However, an inspection conducted by the foundation from Jan. 30 to Feb. 3 showed that 54 retailers, including 13 department stores, 11 hypermarkets, 10 supermarkets and 20 traditional markets failed to offer any such proof.

"The government should disclose the names of the 19 qualified abattoirs in one week and, as in Hong Kong, every chicken should be quarantined by government veterinarians before slaughter, starting right now," Cheng said.

Also see story:
Task force urges calm over bird flu as CDC maps out inoculation campaign
Bird-flu death count increases to 14
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