Only two of the 49 bird flu epidemic areas have not been freed
from restrictions within the Chinese mainland.
To many poultry eaters, this news almost means the end of the
month-long "torture" they have gone through without dining on
poultry.
"I've observed that Beijing has been safe since the avian
influenza outbreak. Now two epidemic areas left, I guess poultry
should be very secure to eat," said Wang Ying, a Beijinger fond of
chicken.
Wang said she had not been ready to make dishes out of frozen
chicken yet, but last week she took a bite on a chicken burger her
boyfriend bought at KFC.
"Because I really cannot resist it and I missed the taste," she
explained.
KFC may soon get over the difficult period, too, since more and
more of its followers like Wang are coming back.
Though KFC never admitted it, people noticed the smaller crowds
in KFC restaurants in Beijing last month.
"When I took my son to KFC a couple times in February, we felt
kind of glad actually, because the restaurant seemed much less
crowded than usual and we did not need to wait for seats," said Zhu
Baoxia, a news editor in Beijing.
Quanjude, famous for Peking roast duck, is also benefiting from
the lift of restrictions in epidemic areas.
"We are seeing more foreign tourists back to our restaurants
recently," said a spokesman for Beijing Quanjude Group Co Ltd. in a
phone interview with China Daily.
He confirmed that the restaurants in Beijing, usually crowded
with foreign tourists, had received calls to cancel booked
dinners.
The selling of vacuum-packed Peking roast duck, a product
popular with tourists out of the municipality, also was influenced
and dropped in February, the spokesman said.
"Good news is that the business is returning to normal," he
said.
In the supermarket, the retail price of chicken is bouncing
back, but still lower than before the epidemic.
"The lowest price of chicken wings per kilogram has dropped to
20 yuan (US$2.41). Now it is 23.8 yuan (US$2.87), but still lower
than the usual 27 yuan (US$3.25)," said Han Fang, a seller at one
of the Shouhang Supermarket chainstores.
But Han said the sale of frozen chicken products has not yet
recovered, even at such a low price.
Chicken lovers should feel lucky and not waste the food, because
people in South Korea have to pay a much higher price for
chicken.
The retail price of chicken in South Korea has surged to a
six-year high of 3,580 won (US$3.05) per kilogram.
According to the local English newspaper The Korea
Times, the price of chicken dropped sharply to 1,170 won
(US$1) earlier this year amid public fears over the highly
contagious bird flu which appeared in the country in December
2003.
(China Daily March 13, 2004)