Killer virus scuttles meat, fish exports

Meat and seafood exports to Asia are grinding to a halt as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (Sars) epidemic cuts into restaurant and tourism trade in the region.

Exporters are reporting a drastic fall in demand for New Zealand primary produce from Asian markets because the killer pneumonia-like virus, which to date has claimed 144 lives and infected more than 3300, is deterring travel.

Crayfish exports have been hardest hit. Fishermen are refusing to take crayfish out of the sea after a 30 per cent drop in export prices.

One Christchurch fish-processing firm was said to be planning to ask staff not to come to work next week, when there are only three working days between Easter and Anzac Day.

The meat industry also is in trouble, with reduced demand from the restaurant trade in Sars-affected countries already reducing prices for high-quality cuts.

Tanks near Christchurch International Airport that normally hold live crayfish for export are empty.

Kaikoura fisherman Dick Cleall said residents had stopped fishing because the "beach" price, $17 to $18 a crayfish, made it uneconomic.

"At this time of year the price normally starts off at $28 to $32."

Ngai Tahu Seafood operations manager Kerry Russell, whose company is the largest crayfish exporter in the South Island, did not expect many crayfish to be caught before June because of low export prices, down US$7 ($13) on last year.

Meat Industry Association chief executive Brian Lynch said Sars was also affecting meat exports to Asia, which comprise 140,000 tonnes a year of high-quality cuts, about half of which go to restaurants and hotels.

"In the last three to four years there has been a succession of food scares - BSE in Japan, foot and mouth in Korea, e-coli in China and Taiwan.

"Each time the domestic consumption of red meat has taken a drastic hit, the market has remained sluggish for months, and then consumers regain confidence and consumption picks up, Mr Lynch said.

"We have seen the Asian market as high as it has been in five years recently. However, unless the authorities get on top of Sars, which doesn't appear to be happening, you are going to get fewer people eating out."

* Nine more Sars patients have died in Hong Kong, its biggest one-day fatality increase. Its toll is now 56.

Four of the latest victims were relatively young with no previous health problems - a 45-year-old man and women aged 32, 34 and 37.

- NZPA