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.