Poultry market in China mainland has been hit since H7N9 bird flu virus outbroke in March. However, in Yangzhou, East China’s Jiangsu province, some companies are turning crisis into opportunities by hoarding unsalable geese from local farmers.
Dayi township in Yangzhou is famous for the air-dried goose. Some food manufacturers began gobbling up geese with a price 12 Yuan ($1.9) per kg lower than normal market price. It is estimated that a manufacturer with the largest storage of 200,000 frozen geese can earn more by 6 million Yuan ($974,421) at the end of this year once these frozen-stored geese are launched to the market.
The frozen geese are safe because the manufacturers are QS qualified and the geese are strictly quarantined before purchasing. A high temperature cooking process can effectively prevent the food from virus. As stored below -18℃, the geese can remain fresh for one and a half years.
“The ‘cold business’ opportunity grasped by the manufacturers is worth to draw lessons from. This model is also named cold chain which consists of uninterrupted series of storage and distribution activities” Said by Gao Hui, an agricultural economic expert from agriculture college, Yangzhou University.
