Chicken sales drop 50 percent

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