Bird flu has little impact on food vendors

Bird flu has little impact on food vendors

Dewi Santoso, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The current outbreak of avian influenza, or bird flu, and
widespread media coverage apparently have not affected street
vendors selling foods using chicken as a main ingredient.

"I heard about the bird flu outbreak on television, but I
don't think people are too worried about it, because my sales
haven't dropped," Akim, a chicken noodle soup vendor at Muara
Karang Market, North Jakarta, said on Monday.

Akim usually sells between 60 and 70 bowls of chicken noodle
soup daily at Rp 8,500 (US$1) a bowl. He said his business had
not been impacted even when print media ran reports on the
outbreak.

Maria, a chicken porridge vendor at the same market, also said
it was business as usual.

"Today is just like any other day. I opened the stall at 6
a.m. and within an hour, many customers came in for porridge,"
she said. Maria normally closes the stall at 9 a.m., when the
porridge has sold out.

Helen, a customer at Maria's stall, said she was not worried
about the possibility of contracting the disease, as the chicken
meat in the porridge was shredded and well-done.

However, she told The Jakarta Post that she avoided eating
chickens that were cooked whole, because she feared it may not
have been cooked properly.

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) and the
city's husbandry, fishery and maritime affairs agency recommend
that all chicken and eggs be cooked thoroughly before
consumption.

At Kampung Bebek Market, also in North Jakarta, Hainan chicken
rice vendor Budi said sales remained the same as before the
outbreak was reported in the media.

"I don't know if it (the outbreak) has affected other people's
businesses. As far as I'm concerned, it hasn't affected mine."

Budi normally sells around 30 portions of Hainan chicken rice
a day, at Rp 60,000 each.

Food vendors specializing in fish dishes have not noticed any
significant jump in sales following news of the outbreak.

A batagor, or steamed and fried fish dumplings, vendor at
Taman Sari Food City in Lippo Karawaci, Tangerang, said he did
not experience any increase in sales.

"I haven't raised prices just because people are afraid of
eating chicken. Besides, I don't think they care much about the
outbreak, as my sales haven't increased as might have been
expected," Tanto said.

Lian, who sells pempek, or fried fish cake, in Kota, West
Jakarta, agreed with Tanto, saying that the outbreak did not
positively impact her business.

"I still only sell about 200 pempek a day," she said.

Bird flu in Asia has so far killed 12 people in Thailand and
Vietnam. The first interspecies transmission of bird flu from
birds to humans was recorded in Hong Kong in 1997 when 18 people,
of whom 12 recovered, contracted the disease.

The government confirmed last month that bird flu was present
in Indonesia after months of cover-up: the first case was
reported on Aug. 29. Initially insisting that they had
insufficient funds to carry out a mass culling, the government
reversed its position last week after Wednesday's regional
meeting in Bangkok and ordered farmers to cull infected chickens.

Director of veterinary health Tri Satya Putri Naipospos of the
Ministry of Agriculture said on Tuesday that the virus was
identified as the H5N1 strain, which is the only strain of bird
flu known to have cause human fatalities.