Asian Restaurants In North Texas Feeling Impact Of Coronavirus Fears
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - As the coronavirus death toll climbs above 2,000 in China, Asian businesses in the Dallas-Fort Worth area say they're being impacted by the fear associated with this.
At Jia Modern Chinese in Preston Hollow, business has noticeably slowed.
"I used to have a lot of regulars that would come in once or twice a week and I haven't seen them back for more than three weeks already so I'm a little bit worried about that," owner Jia Huang said.
Huang believes this is due to fears associated with the coronavirus.
"People have this mindset when something happens in other countries they kind of connect that together with the cuisine so I think that's why," Huang said. "They will ask me 'you don't have any employees that come from China right now right?' I say 'no'."
Huang says all of her ingredients are locally sourced.
"We are using good quality of ingredients," Huang said. "We still serve the same food and nothing has changed, so hopefully customers can understand that."
At North Food Group in Irving, employees have noticed about a 15% drop in orders from local Asian restaurants and grocery stores. The distributing company serves around 1,500 business in North Texas and six other states.
"We sell to all the Asian restaurants," Jack Zhao. "Poultry, seafood and vegetables and dry goods. Everyone is in a little bit of a panic. People shouldn't be worried about that. Our products, our poultry.. protein.. mainly comes from the U.S. and the seafood comes from South America."
The CDC reports currently, there is no evidence to support the coronavirus can even be transmitted through imported goods.
It appears to be transmitted from person to person.
