China's catering industry was hit badly by the severe acute respiratory syndrome in the first half, but there is optimism about the prospects for the rest of the year.

In the six-month period, total sales of the country's catering industry grew 6.4 percent to 264.96 billion yuan (US$31.96 billion). But the growth rate fell 10.1 percentage points from the year-earlier period. In spite of the growth, the national industry reported a total loss of up to 5 billion yuan.

But the China Cuisine Association still expects the industry to be able to realize sales of 570 billion yuan.

The shanghai Restaurants Association also reported positive signs in the local market, but said it will be good enough just to see the industry recover to last year's level.

The local association said that the city's catering in-dustry might equal last year's 30-billion-yuan sales if the industry's recovery could maintain its present pace.

"The situation recent days is encouraging in the city as local citizens are dining outside more frequently than before, despite the hot weather," said He Yizhao, chairman of the Shanghai Restaurants Association.

"But there is still one big problem. The recovery of the whole catering industry relies heavily on the recovery in the international activities such as exhibi-tions, tourism and business exchanges. These industries have just started to rebound and are far from getting back to normal," He said.

Sales of the local catering industry dropped around 50 percent in the second quarter when the epidemic broke out.

Currently, most restaurants have returned to 80 percent daily sales of the normal amount. And the third quarter, the peak season of the catering consumption, may help to propel the recovery.

(eastday.com August 4, 2003)