KFC to drop chicken in Vietnam because of bird flu
KFC to drop chicken in Vietnam because of bird flu
Bloomberg, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Eight of the nine KFC restaurants in Vietnam, which has
stopped some poultry sales to halt its bird flu epidemic, will
serve fish and pasta instead of fried chicken when they open
Saturday after more than a week closed.
Business fell about 30 percent after people died of bird flu
in Vietnam, KFC Vietnam General Director Pornchai Thuratum said.
All nine shops closed last week for the Tet holiday, and only the
single shop outside Ho Chi Minh City has re-opened, he said. KFC
Vietnam is the local franchisee of Yum Brands Inc.
At least six people have died of bird flu in Vietnam and
about 3.5 million poultry have died or been culled, United
Nations agencies have said. The government has halted poultry
sales in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam's largest urban area.
"We can't find the supply in Ho Chi Minh City, and the
government isn't allowing chickens to be transported across
provinces, so there was no point in trying to stay open serving
chicken," Thuratum said in an interview.
The eight Ho Chi Minh City outlets will serve non-chicken
dishes for about a month, the amount of time it needs to arrange
imports of U.S. chicken, Thuratum said. The outlet in neighboring
Dong Nai province has reopened serving local chicken, he
said.
"We'll import until the situation in Vietnam settles
down," Thuratum said. "My costs will double, but I must keep
the restaurants open, or we will have 300 unemployed staff."
Bird-flu related losses will be "quite a lot," he said,
declining to give an estimate.
The three Ho Chi Minh City outlets of the Philippines'
Jollibee Foods Corp. have stopped serving chicken dishes,
according to Tan Viet Huong Co., its Vietnam franchise holder.
The provinces most affected by bird flu are just south of
Ho Chi Minh City, where there have been two confirmed human
cases, including a death, the World Health Organization has said.
The city has killed 1.4 million chickens and 400,000 ducks out of
a total of 2 million poultry, the Saigon Times Daily said today.
"They have managed to get a better handle on the situation,
but it is by no means under control," said Anton Rychener,
Vietnam representative of the Food and Agriculture Organization
of the United Nations.