Why has fresh poultry consumption become an irresistible trend?

In May this year, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, took the lead in carrying out centralized poultry “slaughtering, cold-chain delivery and fresh marketing” in four of its districts. This means that at 394 poultry stalls in Guangzhou's pilot areas, live chickens can no longer be slaughtered on the spot, and sales have switched to fresh chickens. For the Guangzhou market, which has long been accustomed to slaughtering and selling live poultry on the spot, closing the live poultry market and promoting fresh chicken sales tests, on the one hand, the capital and capacity of suppliers, wholesalers and retailers to change their production methods, and on the other hand, challenges ordinary citizens' long-standing consumption habits and dietary traditions.

Suppliers: Facing unprecedented challenges

At around 4 a.m. every day, the fresh chickens from the slaughterhouse of Guangdong Tiannong Food Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Tiannong Company) are sent by the cold-chain delivery system to the Guangzhou transfer center, and then distributed to various terminal retail outlets. Before that, the broiler chickens must go through unified slaughtering and processing procedures such as bleeding, de-feathering, evisceration, pre-cooling and packaging. Tiannong Company, Guangzhou Jiangfeng Industrial Co., Ltd. and Guangzhou Baixing Livestock and Feed Co., Ltd. are the 3 designated poultry slaughtering and processing companies for this Guangzhou pilot of “centralized slaughtering and fresh marketing”. Tiannong Company has a poultry slaughtering and processing plant that meets EU standards, with a daily slaughtering capacity of 100,000 chickens.

However, the first person to “eat the crab” always has to face unprecedented challenges. Because the market response has generally been lukewarm, fresh chicken sales have remained sluggish. “In the first week of the trial, 2,000 to 3,000 chickens could still be sold each day, but after one month the downward trend in sales became very obvious, and now daily sales have slid to 300 to 500.” Wei Zhuangli, administrative director of Tiannong Company, told reporters.

Tiannong's experience is not an isolated case. At the beginning of the implementation of the fresh poultry sales policy, Guangzhou's average daily sales of fresh chickens were about 4,000, while by the end of July this figure had dropped to about 2,500.

Although the start was difficult, some companies are still eager to try. At the end of June, Guangzhou identified the second batch of pilot fresh poultry slaughtering enterprises. These four enterprises mainly deal in poultry varieties such as chickens, ducks, geese and pigeons. Increasing the number of pilot enterprises is expected to enrich the variety of fresh poultry and also prepare supplies in advance for the citywide promotion of fresh poultry in October.

⟦NL> Retail stall owners: Struggling with poor business while waiting for subsidies

“In the past, when I slaughtered the chickens myself, I could save 3 yuan on the slaughtering fee. Now, not only do I have to pay more for slaughtering and delivery when stocking up, but customers also think the goods are too expensive and won't buy them.” said Mr. Huang, a broiler stall owner at Longjin Market in Liwan District, Guangzhou. In the past, chicken stall owners all slaughtered the chickens themselves and sold them on site. Now, with unified slaughtering and cold-chain delivery, the cost of stocking one chicken increases by about 7 yuan. And citizens have not yet adapted to the meat quality, taste and price of fresh chickens, so business at pilot stalls has fallen from several dozen chickens a day to not even ten a day.

In addition to stocking costs, retail stall owners are also under pressure from stall renovation costs. According to Guangzhou's citywide standards for renovating stalls for the pilot marketing of fresh poultry, the specifications for fresh poultry sales stalls are “one room, one cabinet and one display stand”. To meet the preservation standards for fresh chickens, stall owners need to equip each stall with at least one freezer, at a cost ranging from several thousand yuan to 10,000 yuan.

In order to boost the confidence of fresh poultry sellers, in June this year Guangzhou issued detailed rules for the distribution of pilot subsidies for terminal sales of fresh poultry. The detailed rules include: pilot markets may apply for stall upgrading and renovation subsidies with application materials before September 5, with a subsidy of 9,000 yuan per stall for demolition and renovation costs and 11,000 yuan for refrigeration equipment; for operators of original live poultry stalls registered in pilot markets on May 5 who have switched to selling fresh poultry for a full 60 days before September 30, a one-time business guidance subsidy of 4,000 yuan may be given through reward-based subsidies in light of the conversion results.

Consumers: Active consumption still needs promotion

In Guangdong, there has long been a saying that “no feast is complete without chicken”, and chicken occupies a very important place in the dietary structure of Cantonese people. For Cantonese people, who have always pursued “freshness” in cooking, live chickens are an indispensable ingredient.

According to a survey report released in March by the Guangzhou Public Opinion Research Center, 66% of interviewed citizens were worried that after the market stopped selling live chickens slaughtered on the spot, the chicken quality would be poor.

In addition to worrying about the quality of fresh chickens, price factors also affect consumers' choices. “Live chickens slaughtered on the spot cost more than ten yuan per jin, and cheap fresh chickens also cost more than ten yuan per jin, so a whole chicken is more than ten yuan more expensive than a live chicken.” said Aunt Cao, who lives in Liwan District, Guangzhou.

In fact, for the quality issue that consumers generally worry about, fresh chicken suppliers already have countermeasures. The packaging of fresh chicken products supplied to the market all has a QR code, and scanning it with a mobile phone provides information about the chicken, including the number of days the chicken was raised, the slaughter time, the preservation time and so on.

Regarding the market response, Zheng Huidian, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Agriculture, said that if consumption in institutional canteens, supermarkets and other outlets is included, fresh chicken sales already account for 40% of Guangdong's poultry consumption, while for individuals, consumption habits still need to be cultivated. Zheng Huidian gave an example: Hong Kong, China's fresh chicken supply now accounts for 70% to 80% of market supply, and this result was only achieved after 10 to 20 years of implementation.

“Selling fresh chickens is a trend, and it is very effective in blocking the spread of disease.” Zheng Huidian said that after the fresh marketing of poultry, prevention and control of “H7N9” is effective.