Chicken sales drop 50 percent

Chicken vendors at the Ciputat market, Tangerang, and Kebayoran Lama market, South Jakarta, complained on Wednesday that chicken sales have dropped by 50 percent following the outbreak of bird flu.

"I brought 15 birds here this morning and could only get rid of seven of them. I used to sell this number of chickens by 1 p.m. Now, I'm going to have to keep them in the freezer for tomorrow," said Wati, a chicken vendor at Ciputat market.

Wati had even cut her prices to attract buyers but they appeared intent on buying fish and beef instead.

"I could only sell four chickens today. It's hard to believe. I've usually sold nine chickens at least by this time," said Karno, a chicken vendor at Kebayoran Lama market. "Nobody has died because of bird flu, right? If things keep going on like this, I'll have to close up shop.

Halimah, who is a regular buyer of chickens, said that her family has stopped consuming chicken until the government officially announced that chicken meat was safe.

"We don't want to take the risk. Many people say that eating chicken is fine as long as it's properly cooked, but I'm afraid whenever I cook chicken it never seems fully done," she said.

Bedrus, an employee of a chicken slaughterhouse in Ciputat, said that the number of chickens being killed has decreased from around 3,000 chickens before the outbreak to only 1,500 chickens now.

"Starting last week, the vendors started to cut back on their orders," he said. -- JP