Customers eye frozen chicken at the Big C Supermarket in Ha Noi. Frozen chicken sales are presently at a standstill as fears of bird flu wane and consumers voice their preference for juicier, gamier fresh chickens. — VNA/VNS Photo Huu Oai

Market experts said the problem was that Vietnamese consumers prefer buying whole fresh chicken from markets instead of frozen varieties. Customers also complain that frozen products don’t taste as good as fresh meats.

Phuc Thinh, a domestic business specialising in chicken products, was forced to stop selling its brand of frozen food because no one was buying it in supermarkets. The company now sells fresh chicken to keep afloat even though bird flu, spread via contact with live poultry or fresh infected meat, is still a concern.

Japfa Comfeed Viet Nam, owned by Indonesian investors, recently opened a poultry plant in Vinh Phuc Province that can process 24,000 hens and roosters per day. However, the factory isn’t operating at full capacity because it only sells 5,000 chicken products in a month.

Source: Viet Nam News