Blood will splash and feathers will fly during the coming Tuen Ng Festival amid a strenuous cockfight in the chicken markets. But the blood won't flow until the battle is over, when the numbers of chickens being killed to provide festive fare will tell who has won. The tussle will be a market-share contest between local chickens and a flock of upstart invaders from France. Farmer Lee Leung-kei, who imported the French species last August, will put them on the market today ahead of the weekend festival. 'France is the country with the best cuisine so their chickens must be the best,' he said. 'I didn't know a lot about it before I decided to import them, only that I was confident the breed would be good.' After spending more than $700,000 on breeding, he cooked samples of his Wing Ming chicken - named after his farm - for the media. He said they were juicy and tender with a strong flavour, thin skin and no fat. 'It's particularly good for health-conscious people because of its low-fat meat,' he said. The best way to cook his chicken was just to rub a few pinches of salt outside and inside and steam for 20 minutes for 'the best steamed chicken with a strong flavour'. The first 2,000 of his chickens will be on the market after quarantine checks today. Despite an expected market price of $25 to $30 a catty - 10 per cent higher than local breeds - Mr Lee said he was confident of selling them all. He said he would provide the market with a constant supply of 2,500 chickens every 10 days. The local chickens are not giving up easily, however, with two new breeds fighting for market share. The Kamei and Honbo chickens, developed by the University of Hong Kong Kadoorie Agricultural Research Centre, are also at the high end of the price range, at $32 to $35 a catty. Kamei, on the market since 2002, have become an alternative to the traditional breeds because of their thin, low-fat skin. The Honbo, which debuted last month, is a hybrid of South American and Chinese breeds and is provided with more space for exercise during breeding than those on normal chicken farms. Also strongly flavoured - and also $32 to $35 a catty - it has become a hit at the Imperial Kitchen restaurant. 'And now many customers come back time after time because they can't get enough of this chicken,' the restaurant's senior manager, Dennis Tsui Shiu-hung, said. Intensifying the cockfight will be a surge of mainland chickens as the government removes restrictions on imports for three days to meet demand for the festival. Among those who tried the French chicken yesterday was legislator Wong Yung-kan, who represents the poultry sector. He said he welcomed the increased number of breeds in the market because the public demand for both quantity and quality of chicken had increased in recent years.