HK retailer sees sales of frozen chicken rising
REUTER
Hong Kong, Dec 29: Frozen imported chicken sales are expected to rise in Hong Kong because of fears over a deadly "bird flu" virus and a mass slaughter of the territory's poultry, a major food retailer said on Monday.Hong Kong on Monday began slaughtering 1.3 million chickens and other poultry to contain the deadly flu which has killed four people in the territory. Eight others have been confirmed with the illness. The action follows the government's decision last week to ban all imports of live chickens from China, which supplies more than 70 per cent of the territory's chickens. "So far we are doing very well with our frozen chickens," said a spokeswoman at Park'N Shop, one of the territory's two largest supermarket chains. "In the light of the current situation over the bird flu scare, we expect the demand for frozen imported chickens will be much greater," she told Reuters, without giving any firm forecast. Park'N Shop said most of its poultry products were from the United States and
Denmark. Dale Brunton, an importer of frozen chickens, said he had not noticed any immediate increase in demand for frozen chickens but expected consumers in Hong Kong would switch to imported poultry."I have not been aware of any increase of imported chicken sales as a result of this, although I would think there is some substitution effect going on," he said. Sales of live chickens in Hong Kong have fallen dramatically since health officials discovered the H5N1 strain of influenza, previously thought restricted to poultry, could infect humans. Some meat vendors in Hong Kong said on Monday sales of pork were increasing following the "bird-flu" scare. "We have about a 10 per cent increase," a meat stall vendor said, adding that he had no plans to increase the price.
Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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