Citing increased demand, importers of live chickens from Guangdong want the city to lift import restrictions imposed after a bird flu outbreak in the province last year. 'Since the Mid-Autumn Festival, the retail price of chicken has been HK$32 a catty. Before that, it was only HK$26 a catty,' said Lau Chun-sun, secretary of the Hong Kong Poultry Wholesalers and Retailers' Association.
'It is very rare, as traditionally the price of chicken will fall after the Mid-Autumn Festival and the winter solstice,' Mr Lau said.
Tommy Cheung Yu-yan, the legislator representing the catering sector, said the price rise could be attributed to a shortage of supply of and increased demand for better chicken.
'Hong Kong needs as many as 50,000 live chickens to meet the daily demand. And as the economy has recovered, more and more people have asked for live chickens, which taste much better than frozen ones,' he said.
Since March, imports of live chickens from the mainland have been capped at 20,000 a day, after a fatal human infection of bird flu in Guangzhou. At the time, Director of Food and Environmental Hygiene, Eddy Chan Yuk-tak, said the restriction was a 'valid and useful measure' against bird flu.
Previously, the import quota was 30,000 a day. The association wants it lifted to 40,000, and to 100,000 during the Lunar New Year period.
