SINGAPORE : Singapore's duck slaughterhouses and duck rice vendors are in dire straits following the bird-flu outbreak in the Malysian state of Perak in March.
Since then, there has been a drop in supply of live ducks from Malaysia's Johor state, leading to the price of the birds going up by 60 percent.
Now, some duck rice vendors are thinking of quitting, while duck slaughterhouses have started retrenching workers.
The price of a duck from Johor has gone up from the usual S$3.50 to S$5.50, but duck-rice sellers here say they don't dare raise prices because they are afraid of losing business.
They are just looking at other ways to reduce costs.
Said Jackson Seah, managing director of Yu Kee Duck Rice, "We are talking to the landlord about rent issues, but if we cannot resolve it for these four stalls, we might have to close them down.