Roast Peking duck restaurants have seen a sharp drop in business because of the ongoing bird flu outbreak; Quanjude, a brand with 136 years experience in making roast duck, havep lummeted 17% in 12 trading days

April 20, 2013 Leave a comment

Duck restaurants hit by bird flu outbreak

Updated: 2013-04-20 07:47

By Wang Zhuoqiong and Ye Jun ( China Daily)Roast Peking duck restaurants have seen a sharp drop in business because of the ongoingbird flu scare.

DaDong Food & Beverage Investment Co Ltd has seen its business fall 15 percent since thebird flu outbreak last month, said Dong Zhenxiang, Da Dong Peking Roast Duck Restaurantowner.

But he said the restaurants are not worried because duck dishes are only part of the menu,and the reduction of orders for duck will not affect their business on a large scale.

Also, he said, Da Dong sources its ducks from Beijing Golden Star Duck Center, and he truststhe safety of ducks provided by the company based on his experience working with it in pastyears.

“Their quarantine and epidemic prevention management are rather mature,” Dong said.

Beijing Golden Star Duck Center also provides ducks to such large roast duck restaurants asChina Quanjude Group and Duck King.

After dealing with long lines at the DaDong Peking Roast Duck Restaurant in the past, ZhuHong and her family were surprised to find one of its upmarket restaurants in the downtownWangfujing area only half-full on Wednesday. “The VIP rooms are almost empty,” Zhu said.

Meanwhile, shares of Quanjude, a brand with 136 years experience in making roast duck, haveplummeted 17.05 percent in 12 trading days, despite company assurances that the safety of itsducks is guaranteed.

Feng Zijian, director of the health emergency center of the Chinese Center for Disease Controland Prevention, told the Beijing Times there is no proof that processed and cooked chickenand eggs can lead to infection with the H7N9 virus.

Catering industry leaders have been more optimistic about the effect of the spreading influenzacaused by poultry.

“We haven’t seen much of a negative impact on the catering business as a result of bird flu,”said Bian Jiang, assistant director of the China Cuisine Association.

Government transparency on bird flu infection cases has eased public worries about theoutbreak, Bian said.

Bian said the loss of business at some high-end restaurants is more due to the government’snew rules that ban spending at luxury restaurants with public funds.

The drop in sales at high-end restaurants shows the rules have been effective in curbingconsumption by officials, said Sheng Laiyun, spokesman for the National Bureau of Statistics,on Monday.

In the first two months of this year, Quanjude’s revenue was down 3 percent. According toQuanjude’s annual report in 2012, the company’s profits rose 12.73 percent year-on-year to216 million yuan ($34.9 million). The number of customers grew only 1.22 percent, to 7.56million.

To reduce the risk from bird flu, the China Cuisine Association has asked restaurants to payattention to product hygiene during purchasing and production.

It is important to increase cooking time and raise boiling temperatures, Bian said. Adjusting thepercentage of poultry dishes on the menu also will reduce the risk, he added.

For roast-duck lovers like Zhu Hong, bird flu is not a worry.

 

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