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.