Vietnamese poultry sellers anticipate happy holidays

VIETNAM - Hundreds of chicken and duck eggs have been sold at Vietnam's southern HO Chi Minh City (HCM City)-based Saigon Coop supermarket since last week.

The HCM City Union of Trading Co-operatives, which runs the supermarket chain, plans to buy more eggs from certified suppliers for the rising demand for the Christmas, New Year and Lunar New Year.

So far Monday, Vietnam has announced nine localities detecting no new outbreaks for at least three weeks. As the bird flu coolingdown and the holidays knocking on the door, packed chicken and eggs have been a popular draw again for Vietnamese.

Since the mid of December, about 2,000 chickens had been sold everyday, double as many as at the height of the bird flu panic, Pham Van Minh, director of Phu An Sinh company, one of three operating slaughterhouses in HCM City told Xinhua Monday.

"The sales are expected to reach 3,000 chickens on Christmas, the same as in October before bird flu broke out," Minh said, noting that his company intended to slaughter between 4,000 and 5,000 chicken everyday for the upcoming holiday event.

Source: Xinhuanet

20 December 2005