Scared off beef by mad cow disease and shunning chicken because of bird flu, consumers are turning to pork and seafood as safe alternatives, retailers say.
"People were scared, and sales of chicken dropped prior to the Lunar New Year as soon as the bird flu was reported," said Lilian Lee (
Sales of chicken at the nation's largest hypermarket chain, with over 30 outlets, declined by around 40 percent, while those of pork, vegetables and fruits have increased by up to 20 percent over the same period, Lee said.
RT-Mart (
"People are now much more cautious about chicken and they now look out for the Chinese Agriculture Standards symbol when buying meat," said Conny Huang (
The Chinese Agriculture Standards symbol, given by the government, shows that the meat is from a safe source and has been slaughtered properly.
Sales of pork and fish have increased 10 percent at RT-Mart, Huang said.
"The news of infected ducks on Thursday seems not to have affected our sales of smoked or roasted ducks so far," Huang said.
While retailers appear to be bearing the brunt of the bird flu epidemic, fast food restaurants said sales were normal.
"We will stick to chicken, without thinking about selling other kinds of meat as substitutes," said Chi Chi Liu (
KFC in Vietnam has closed its stores while it prepares to offer fish dishes after sales of its fried chicken slumped.
Bird flu will probably mainly affect people's willingness to eat chicken sold by roadside vendors, not by restaurants with good reputations, according to a survey conducted by McDonald's Taiwan.
The local chicken used by McDonald's complies with international food safety control standards, "and we will not consider changing to imported chicken from uninfected areas except in an emergency," said Viya Chen (
A dietitian urged consumers to buy meat with the Chinese Agriculture Standards symbol if possible.
"If the surface of the chicken meat appears redder than normal, it may not have been slaughtered using the safest processes," said Cheng Chin-pao (
She said the redness indicated that the chicken had not been bled properly before being cut up, perhaps because unscrupulous farmers wanting to offload sick chickens hurried the slaughtering process to avoid detection by the authorities.
"People can instead eat more food made from beans like tofu, fresh vegetables and fruits, and seafood as protein sources," she said.
Japan has deployed long-range missiles in a southwestern region near China, the Japanese defense minister said yesterday, at a time when ties with Beijing are at their lowest in recent years. The missiles were installed in Kumamoto in the southern region of Kyushu, as Japan is attempting to shore up its military capacity as China steps up naval activity in the East China Sea. “Standoff defense capabilities enable us to counter the threat of enemy forces attempting to invade our country ... while ensuring the safety of our personnel,” Japanese Minister of Defense Shinjiro Koizumi said. “This is an extremely important initiative for
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) today accepted an invitation from Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to lead a delegation to China next month, saying she hopes to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations and bring stability to the Taiwan Strait. “I am grateful and happy to accept this invitation,” Cheng said in a statement from the KMT chairperson’s office. Cheng said she hopes both sides can work together to promote the peaceful development of cross-strait relations, enhance exchange and cooperation, bring stability to the Taiwan Strait and improve people’s livelihoods. At today's news conference, Cheng said any efforts to
MORE POPULAR: Taiwan Pass sales increased by 59 percent during the first quarter compared with the same period last year, the Tourism Administration said The Tourism Administration yesterday said that it has streamlined the Taiwan Pass, with two versions available for purchase beginning today. The tourism agency has made the pass available to international tourists since 2024, allowing them to access the high-speed rail, Taiwan Railway Corp services, four MRT systems and four Taiwan Tourist Shuttles. Previously, five types of Taiwan Pass were available, but some tourists have said that the offerings were too complicated. The agency said only two types of Taiwan Pass would be available, starting from a three-day pass with the high-speed rail and a three-day pass with Taiwan Railway Corp. The former costs NT$2,800
The nation’s fastest supercomputer, Nano 4 (晶創26), is scheduled to be launched in the third quarter, and would be used to train large language models in finance and national defense sectors, the National Center for High-Performance Computing (NCHC) said. The supercomputer, which would operate at about 86.05 petaflops, is being tested at a new cloud computing center in the Southern Taiwan Science Park in Tainan. The exterior of the server cabinet features chip circuitry patterns overlaid with a map of Taiwan, highlighting the nation’s central position in the semiconductor industry. The center also houses Taiwania 2, Taiwania 3, Forerunner 1 and
RSS