February 4, 2004

 

 

Chicken Sales Fall in Europe

 

Although the bird flu outbreak ravaging Asian countries have not spread to Europe, chicken sales have dropped drastically.

 

"There have been so many negative press reports about bird flu in Asia that consumers are worried and are not buying fresh chicken so much," said Mr Caspar von der Crone, chief executive of the German poultry trade group EVWG.

 

He could not put a figure on how much sales have fallen, but the drop exceeds the 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes of chicken meat imported annually from Thailand before last month's European Union ban on Thai poultry meat.

 

Officials in France's poultry industry say consumers will demand more home-produced poultry as shoppers start looking at country-of- origin labels.

 

"This (bird flu) is not presently an EU problem, and we will see a marketing niche for home-grown chickens instead of frozen imports," analyst firm A2Z Grain said in its latest monthly report.

 

Even before the latest food debacle began to unfold, the poultry sector in the 15-member EU was already in crisis as it grappled with spiraling feed costs and likely changes in trade, industry experts say.

 

In Britain, where an outbreak of the mad-cow disease in the 1990s put consumers off their beef for nearly half a decade, producers are demanding that supermarkets increase the prices paid by consumers for better-quality, home-grown poultry meat.

 

Mr Ben Gill, president of Britain's National Farmers Union (NFU), said the outbreak of bird flu in Asia highlighted the danger of importing cheap meat.

 

"This is an industry moving forward, but if it is to meet the standards (that consumers demand), then it is only appropriate that the costs of production are recognised," he told reporters on Monday.

 

"There are a number of increased costs that cannot simply be retained by efficiencies alone, and cereal prices are at the top of that list."

 

Mr Gill said the doubling of grain prices in the past year would alone add £190 million (S$591 million) to producers' prices.

 

"Poultry production fell by around 7 per cent in January and feed-makers are warning of more increases to come over the next two months," the NFU said.

 

The farmers' group also said it was unfair for restaurant patrons in Britain to have no idea where the meat they were eating came from, especially as most of the imported Thai chicken meat found its way to the catering sector.

 

Last week, Britain's top grocery firm Tesco said it had been using Thai chicken in its range of 'ready meals' until the EU ban.

 

But the latest outbreak of avian flu is nothing new to European consumers, who are still reeling from a decade of food woes, including foot- and-mouth disease, dioxin contamination and mad-cow disease.

 

Last year, the virus hit 255 farms in the Netherlands and about 26 million birds were slaughtered in a bid to contain its spread.

 

The virus was also linked to the death of a Dutch veterinarian.

 

Meanwhile, prices of European aviation shares scrambled to recover yesterday after a dip on Monday following reports of the suspected avian flu case in Germany.