Certificate saves chicken businesses

Certificate saves chicken businesses

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

Restaurants serving fried and grilled chicken in Bandung are
going the extra mile to assure fearful customers their meals are
free of bird flu, with special certificates from the local animal
husbandry office.

Waiters at a Bandung food court usually first attempt to
persuade customers that the chickens in dishes being served were
free from the avian influenza virus.

If the verbal assurance doesn't work, the waiters will show
customers a notice posted in front of their eateries certifying
that their chickens are "bird-flu free".

A restaurant owner, Samin, believes the certificate is
important to give customers eating chicken peace of mind. He put
notice up since reports of bird flu surfaced during the past two
months. But Samin admits that despite the notice, sales have
dropped by about 50 percent recently.

"At least the certificate can assure customers they should not
be wary when eating here, rather than explaining (the safety
precautions needed to prepare chicken) at great length to them,"
Samin said.

World Health Organization information says that there is
little danger from contracting bird flu if customers eat properly
cooked chicken because the virus is normally spread only by
saliva and feces from live birds and does not exist in the blood
long after sick birds die. However, these assurances have not
eased the jitters of many customers who continue to stay away
from poultry.

But while the dangers may be minimal, these certificates also
could be more show than substance.

Head of the Animal Health department of the West Java
Husbandry Office, Musni Suatmodjo, confirmed that most of the
hundreds of chicken farmers in the province had obtained the
certificates from the office.

A certificate was considered valid if it is issued by a
government-certified veterinarian and recognized by the local
husbandry office, he said.

A chicken breeder, Waryo, says the certificate has certainly
helped his business. Before the bird flu, the breeder from south
Bandung could supply around 5,000 chickens to markets in Bandung
and Jakarta daily.

However, demand for the meat has dropped by more than 30
percent, while the price of live chickens has dropped from Rp
9,200 a kg, to between Rp 7,200 and Rp 7,500 a kg now.

To keep customers relaxed, Waryo bought the certificate issued
by the local husbandry office. "It's not (expensive), we can get
a certificate for between Rp 20,000 and Rp 50,000," he said.

Waryo said that the certificate had helped win back consumer
confidence and it had been distributed to chicken traders in many
markets and restaurants.

It was also useful when going through red tape during
inspections by health officials on the roads, especially when he
was transporting chickens between provinces, he said.