Bird Flu

Bird Flu

Britain's consumers appear to be, very sensibly, calm in the wake of the current bird flu outbreak in the UK.

Poultry sales in Britain are holding up, despite the outbreak at a farm owned by Bernard Matthews, Europe's biggest turkey producer.

Britain's leading supermarket chains, Tesco, Sainsbury, Asda and Morrison's all reported sales were bearing up well.

However, foreign consumers are not so relaxed. South Korea and Hong Kong have banned British poultry.

South Korea imported about £1.5m in poultry products from Britain last year.

Hong Kong imported 11,400 tonnes of British poultry and poultry products in the first 10 months of last year.

Ireland, Russia, Japan, South Africa and Indonesia have also banned imports of poultry or related products from the UK.

In the wake of the foot and mouth epidemic and mad cow disease of a few years ago, the countryside and farming in Britain has more than had its fair share of problems.