At his butcher shop on Jindrisska street, manager Jan Jaros is feeling the pinch. Beef used to account for a third of the store's meat turnover. He says sales are down by half and revenue by a quarter in the last few months. But Jaros is convinced that consumers will drift back toward normal levels of beef consumption once the publicity subsides. As new cases turn up throughout Europe, that may take a long time.
People have nothing to be afraid of.
Some pin a beef comeback on preventive measures announced by the government in recent weeks. They include blanket bans on beef imported from a dozen EU nations that have reported BSE cases. Ironically, Prague is actively bidding to join the 15-nation EU, hoping to be admitted before 2004. We have a lot of well-educated customers who come in and say 'When there is a car or plane accident the papers are full of it. Average fall in Czech beef production since December.