Live poultry industry slowly picking up

Gu's positive attitude has been echoed by retailers.

"Generally speaking, our store can sell 70 to 80 chickens a day at about 30 yuan ($5) each," said Xu Ping, a salesman from Fuzhong wet market.

Although suffering losses in the past two months, Xu is confident his store will bounce back into business as before. "I won't make quick money by raising prices."

Most of the selected retailers are to begin selling poultry on Friday after purchasing from wholesalers.

A complete tracing system is to be set up, in which the markets are to issue receipts for all live poultry sold.

The outbreak of the H7N9 flu at the end of March brought the industry to a standstill.

To prevent the spread of the virus, the government closed many markets in some areas, including Zhejiang and Jiangsu provinces.

Markets not on the list are waiting to see if the poultry industry will recover.

"To my knowledge, only three large agriculture markets in Putuo district reopened, and those privately owned and small markets where my stand was are still closed," said Zhu Jing, a poultry seller on Gaoling Road and a regular supplier to nearby restaurants and residents in the past two decades.

"At least certain markets reopened for live poultry trading after waiting for more than two months. I choose to wait a bit longer, so I can continue to sell live poultry in the future," Zhu said.

Jiang Yinan contributed to this story.