September 26, 2007

High chicken price snaps HK families on moon festival

Families in Hong Kong will have to dig deeper into their pockets for the traditional chicken dinner as they celebrate the Chinese mid-autumn festival with skyrocketing prices of poultry products due to bird flu and inflation worries.

According to Lau Chun-sun, the secretary-general for the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers Association, chicken prices are now HK$100 (US$12.85) from the previous HK$80. Hong Kong's Financial Secretary John Tsang warned on Monday (September 25) the city's inflation this year might average 0.3 to 0.5 percentage point more than the official forecast of 1.5 percent.

Hong Kong's consumer price index for August revealed pork prices jumping 31.4 percent over a year earlier, while egg prices jumped 27.9 percent and poultry rose 12.1 percent.

The government last week imposed a ban on live poultry from part of neighbouring Guangdong province in China after a suspected outbreak of the deadly H5N1 bird flu virus near Panyu, which exacerbated the price rise for poultry.

Imports were partially resumed on Monday, allowing some chicken sellers to cut prices slightly.

Chinese families traditionally celebrate the mid-autumn or lantern festival as a time of abundant harvest with a dinner stacked with food like mooncakes and fresh chicken.

But a chicken seller attested business was down 20 percent because of excessively high prices.

Hong Kong, which imports most of its food from the mainland, has been affected by rising consumer prices in China which jumped 6.5 percent in the year to August, the fastest clip in more than a decade.

Chinese inflation has been driven largely by a surge in the price of food, especially pork, caused in part by disease and rising feed grain costs.