by mends » 10 Mar 2006, 10:42
The New York Times
No Time to Be in the Chicken Business
By JOHN TAGLIABUE
PARIS, March 9 — For European restaurants that serve mainly chicken, the last few weeks have been a nail-biting time.
"Our chickens are well cooked, there's no danger at all," said Antoine Mendy, a manager in his 20's at a KFC restaurant on the broad Place de la Republique. Yet Mr. Mendy conceded that since Christmas, "we did have a dip in sales, though they're back; I think they're coming back."
What has kept his customers away, Mr. Mendy said over coffee, is uncertainty about avian flu. Though the bird flu virus is killed when chicken is cooked, and KFC, a unit of Yum Brands, has said little about its effect thus far on sales, the chain has put up posters intended to assure customers that the food is safe. KFC has also made promotional offers, especially aimed at children, of a chicken meal with toy for only 4 euros, about $4.80.
As cases of avian flu crop up across Europe, consumers are fretting. Sales of poultry at French supermarkets have plummeted, leading major chains like Auchan to offer two chickens for the price of one, a rarity in France.
Independent restaurants say they are hurting more than Kentucky Fried Chicken, as the KFC chain was formerly known.
"A certain drop is normal after the holidays, but this year it was 40 percent," said Nadeem Mumtaz, the owner of Chicken Corner, a KFC knockoff just off northern Place de Clichy. To make matters worse, a new KFC recently opened about a block away, although some customers prefer his food over KFC because it is halal, prepared according to Islamic rules.
To counter the slowdown, Mr. Mumtaz, 42, who opened Chicken Corner three years ago, has special offers for children and adults, but to little avail.
"Our chicken is safe, there is no risk," he said, waving a hand at his empty restaurant, "but even people you tell that to ask questions, have doubts."
For KFC, the rumblings in Europe are a sideshow compared with the challenges it faces in Asia. Late last year, consumers in China shunned KFC because of the avian flu, which has caused 10 deaths there so far. Around the same time, KFC had to withdraw a soup from the Chinese market after it was found that a vegetable ingredient could result in liver damage, if eaten in large amounts. On top of that, some KFC foods were found to contain the carcinogenic coloring Sudan-1.
KFC has withdrawn all those products and ingredients.
Veronique Perrin, a spokeswoman for KFC in France, where the company has about 37 restaurants and is expanding quickly, declined to comment on how bird flu is affecting sales or what actions the company might be taking. But the company said in a statement this week that in some of Europe's biggest and most robust markets, sales have not been hurt. In Britain and Ireland, where there have been no cases of avian flu, "there has been no impact on sales" at KFC's 680 restaurants.
Nonetheless, KFC said it was ready. "We have procedures in place to ensure that chicken with avian flu cannot enter our supply chain," the company said. "In addition, we have communications plans in place should it become necessary to remind consumers of the World Health Organization statement that eating properly cooked chicken is safe."
In that vein, a recent Times of London article featured the headline "Lottery Win More Likely Than Avian Flu."
In a narrow KFC at the African food market in the Château Rouge section of northern Paris, Eric Makosso, a restaurant manager, said it was normal to have a drop in sales after the New Year holiday.
"People are not upset," Mr. Makosso, 25, said. He said the restaurant's chickens come from Brittany, in western France, and its hot wings from Poland. "For us, what is important is traceability, and what temperature the chicken is at," he said. "I check the chicken's temperature when it comes in, and I know how it's cooked."
Facimata Bà, a homemaker in her 20's who said she went to KFC regularly, had no qualms about the chicken's safety. "It's a big part of the African diet. It's well cooked. We eat a lot of chicken."
French health experts expect more cases of avian flu in the weeks to come. Philippe Vannier, the director of animal health at the Agency for Health Safety, told a parliamentary committee this week that the cases would not be concentrated in just one region of the country. "The probability is extremely high," Mr. Vannier said. But he added that the government health services were prepared.
Restaurant industry experts urge a wait-and-see policy. "Obviously it's something to watch," said Peter H. Oakes, who follows the restaurant trade at Piper Jaffray in New York. In the absence of same-store sales figures, judging the seriousness of the threat is difficult, Mr. Oakes said. But he added: "It looks like things soften in the winter; at the same time, it's not dramatic."
Asked if she was afraid to eat poultry, Katharina Zollner, who recently visited the new KFC on Place de Clichy with her two young boys, replied: "Not yet, but if more such cases appear, then I might change my mind."
What frightened her, she said, was the omnipresent pigeons of Paris. "Dead pigeons," she said. "In recent days, I've seen 10 dead pigeons."
"I used to be on an endless run.
Believe in miracles 'cause I'm one.
I have been blessed with the power to survive.
After all these years I'm still alive."
Joey Ramone, em uma das minhas músicas favoritas ("I Believe in Miracles")